Employment law cases

All items: Managing employees/workers

  • Tribunal may leave some stones unturned

    The Court of Appeal gives important guidance on how far tribunals need to go in exploring the circumstances of a claim. Plus cases on protected disclosure, redundancy selection, discrimination by an agent, working time exemptions and constructive dismissal.

  • New European transfer rules

    When does Tupe apply to outsourcing situations? There are few more complex and volatile areas of employment law, and a recent decision by the European Court of Justice may only add to the confusion.

  • Employment status: Insufficient control meant that worker was not employee of agency

    Date:
    15 April 2001

    A person who found work through an employment agency and remained in that same job for more than two years was not employed by the agency, holds the Court of Appeal in Montgomery v Johnson Underwood Ltd.

  • Equal pay: No right to full pay during maternity leave

    Date:
    15 March 2001

    The principle of equal pay under Community law does not require that women should continue to receive full pay during maternity leave, holds the European Court of Justice in Gillespie and others v Northern Health and Social Services Board and others.

  • Transfer of undertakings: Absence of transfer of employees cannot be determinative

    Date:
    1 February 2001

    The question of whether the whole or a majority of a transferee contractor's workforce is taken on by the putative transferor cannot be determinative of whether or not there has been a relevant transfer of an undertaking under the EC Business Transfer Directive and the domestic Transfer of Undertakings Regulations, holds the EAT in Cheeseman and others v R Brewer Contracts Ltd and Onyx (UK) Ltd v Cheeseman and others.

  • Employment status: Client of employment agency had sufficient control to be employer of agency worker

    Date:
    15 January 2001

    In Motorola Ltd v Davidson and another, dealing solely with the issue of control, the EAT holds that a client of an employment agency had sufficient control over the worker assigned to it to sustain a finding that it was in fact the employer of the worker.

  • Working time: Doctors' on-call time at work was "working time"

    Date:
    1 November 2000

    In Sindicato de Médicos de Asistencia Pública (Simap) v Conselleria de Sanidad y Consumo de la Generalidad Valenciana, the ECJ rules that all of the time spent on call by teams of doctors providing primary care at health centres was "working time", within the meaning of the EC Working Time Directive, if they were required to be at the health centres.

  • Suspension on maternity grounds: Alternative work offered to employees suspended on maternity grounds was unsuitable

    Date:
    15 April 2000

    Pregnant cabin crew who volunteered for ground duties to which they were deployed were not offered "suitable alternative work" within the meaning of s.67(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, because the terms and conditions applicable to that alternative work were substantially less favourable than the corresponding terms and conditions for their normal work, holds the EAT in British Airways (European Operations at Gatwick) Ltd v Moore and another.

  • Normal working hours: No obligation to provide non-contractual overtime

    Date:
    1 February 2000

    Employees whose contractual working hours were 39 hours per week but who, in practice, were required to work six hours' overtime made available to them to the extent of 45 hours per week were not guaranteed that overtime, so holds the EAT in Spence and others v City of Sunderland Council.

  • Transfer of undertakings: Dismissal by reason of transfer precludes finding of "ETO" reason

    Date:
    1 January 2000

    The principal reason for the dismissal of a transferor's employees, purportedly on the grounds of redundancy, was the impending transfer of the undertaking, holds the EAT in Kerry Foods Ltd v Creber and others.

About this category

Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to managing employees/workers.