Working hours
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".
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.
Chris McAvoy, Cane Pickersgill, Tessa Harland, Sarah Wade and David Rintoul are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
Claire Benson is managing associate and Caroline Jacobs and Chris McAvoy are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to working hours.