Managing employees/workers
In Wippel v Peek & Cloppenburg GmbH & Co. KG, the European Court of Justice holds that a worker working pursuant to a contract under which hours of work are dependent on the amount of work available and are determined only on a case-by-case basis by agreement between the employer and worker, is within the scope of the Equal Treatment Directive.
In Forster v Cartwright Black, the EAT holds that the statutory right to time off for dependants contained in s.57A(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 does not include sickness absence caused by a bereavement.
In Soteriou v Ultrachem Ltd and others [2004] IRLR 870 HC, the High Court held that the EAT had not erred in striking out the applicant's claim for wrongful dismissal on the basis that an employment tribunal had already determined on a claim for unfair dismissal that the applicant's contract of employment was unenforceable due to illegality and that, since the claim for wrongful dismissal involved the same contract, the EAT was bound by that finding.
This week's case law round-up from Eversheds, covering pregnancy-related dismissals and transfers not covered by TUPE Regulations.
In South Central Trains Ltd v Rodway the EAT holds that a disagreement over entitlement to parental leave does not amount to a "reason related to parental leave" for the purpose of a complaint of being subjected to a detriment under s.47C of Employment Rights Act 1996 (leave for family and domestic reasons).
In Street v Derbyshire Unemployed Workers' Centre, the Court of Appeal holds that an employment tribunal had been correct to find that an employee's "whistleblowing" disclosure was not made in good faith because, although she believed her allegations to be true and did not make the disclosure for personal gain, her motivation for making it was personal antagonism towards the subject of the disclosure.
In Merino Gomez v Continental Industrias del Caucho SA, the European Court of Justice holds that pregnant workers have a dual entitlement to annual leave and maternity leave: pregnant workers must be able to take their annual leave during a period other than their period of maternity leave.
Voluntary workers were not "employees" as defined in s.68 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, holds the EAT in South East Sheffield Citizens Advice Bureau v Grayson (17 November 2003).
In Alabaster v Woolwich plc, the European Court of Justice holds that article 119 (now 141) of the EC Treaty of Rome requires that earnings-related maternity pay must reflect any pay rise awarded between the start of the reference period (upon which the level of the earnings-related maternity pay is based) and the end of the employee's maternity leave.
In Bamsey and others v Albon Engineering & Manufacturing plc [2004] IRLR 457 CA, the Court of Appeal held that where overtime hours have been worked during the 12-week period immediately preceding the date on which a worker's holiday begins only those hours that the employer is contractually required to provide and the worker contractually required to work count as normal working hours for the purposes of determining the amount of a week's pay.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to managing employees/workers.