Employment law cases

All items: Working hours

  • Firefighter's on-call time spent at home constitutes "working time"

    In Ville de Nivelles v Matzak, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that the time during which a firefighter is on standby at home and must be at the fire station within a matter of minutes counts as "working time".

  • Worker automatically unfairly dismissed for refusing to work more than 48 hours per week

    In this case, the employment tribunal found that a worker, who had refused to work more than 48 hours per week, was automatically unfairly dismissed by his employer.

  • Case round-up

    Chris McAvoy, Cane Pickersgill, Tessa Harland, Sarah Wade and David Rintoul are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.

  • Case round-up

    Claire Benson is managing associate and Caroline Jacobs and Chris McAvoy are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.

  • Burrow Down Support Services Ltd v Rossiter

    Date:
    17 July 2008

    The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld an employment tribunal decision that an employee who was allowed to sleep for much of his shift, but had to deal with anything untoward that might arise, was entitled to be paid the national minimum wage for the whole shift.

  • McLean v Rainbow Homeloans Ltd

    Date:
    10 October 2006

    In McLean v Rainbow Homeloans Ltd [2007] IRLR 14 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that an employee was unfairly dismissed for asserting a statutory right when he refused to work extra hours that would have been a breach of the Working Time Regulations 1998.

  • Anderson v Jarvis Hotels

    Date:
    23 July 2006

    In Anderson v Jarvis Hotels EATS/0062/05, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that an employee was contractually entitled to be paid for periods when he was required to sleep on the employer's premises, even though he rarely had to carry out any work during these periods.

  • Working time: Direct effect of and exclusions from 48-hour week

    Date:
    11 February 2005

    In Pfeiffer and others v Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Kreisverband Waldshut eV, the European Court of Justice held that the exclusion of 'road transport' from the provisions of the Working Time Directive did not cover emergency workers, even when they used a road vehicle and accompanied patients on their journeys to hospital.

  • Working time: No detriment following withdrawal from opt-out

    Date:
    28 January 2005

    In Clamp v Aerial Systems, the EAT holds that, in a case where the applicant withdrew his consent to opt out of the maximum 48-hour week set by the Working Time Regulations 1998, the applicant had not suffered a detriment within the meaning of s.45A of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

  • 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.

About this category

Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to working hours.