Working time
In Leisure Leagues UK Ltd v Maconnachie, the EAT holds that a payment in lieu of holiday made on termination of employment should be calculated by reference to a daily rate of pay based on the number of working days in a year (233 days), and not by the number of days in the calendar year (365 days).
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.
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.
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.
In R v Attorney General for Northern Ireland ex parte Burns [1999] IRLR 315 NIHCQB, Northern Ireland High Court, Queen's Bench Division held that that the failure of the Government to transpose the Working Time Directive in time was an actionable breach of Community law.
In making the Working Time Regulations, Parliament intended that all contracts of employment must be read so as to provide that an employee should work no more than an average of 48 hours per week during any 17-week reference period, holds the High Court in Barber and others v RJB Mining (UK) Ltd.
In Thames Water Utilities v Reynolds, the EAT holds that the Apportionment Act 1870 applied to the computation of a day's annual holiday pay to which an employee was contractually entitled on termination of his employment, and that the meaning of "a day" for these purposes is a calendar day rather than a working day.
An employer's right to require overtime from an employee who is under a contractual obligation to be "on call" for a specified number of hours in excess of his basic working week, is subject to the employer's implied duty to take reasonable care not to injure its employee's health, holds the Court of Appeal in Johnstone v Bloomsbury Health Authority.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to working time.