Collective employee relations

New and updated

• Date:

  29 August 2008

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Collective redundancies: Employer company liable for post-liquidation protective award

  In Haine and another v Day [2008] IRLR 642, the Court of Appeal held that a protective award made after the employer company went into liquidation in respect of its failure to consult before making collective redundancies was a provable, and therefore potentially recoverable, debt.

• Date:

  13 May 2008

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  ECJ: Court rules that public contractors cannot be obliged to pay collectively agreed wage rates

  In a controversial ruling issued in April 2008, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) found that public authorities cannot demand that companies that are awarded works contracts must pay wages to all workers (including workers posted from other countries) that are in line with rates set out in collective agreements applicable to the place of work.

• Date:

  14 April 2008

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  TUPE: TUPE may apply to transfer of business to Israel

  In Holis Metal Industries Ltd v GMB and another [2008] IRLR 187, the EAT refused to strike out a claim alleging breach of consultation duties arising pursuant to the TUPE Regulations 2006.

• Type:

  FAQs

  To which employers might the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006 apply?

• Date:

  27 February 2008

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  TUPE case law update

  This article looks at some of the important judgments in the area of the transfer of undertakings over the past year.

• Date:

  25 February 2008

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Collective redundancies: Protective award starts at 90 days' pay

  In Hutchins v Permacell Finesse Ltd (in administration) EAT/0350/07, the EAT held that the starting point for determining a protective award is 90 days' pay, even where fewer than 100 redundancies are involved and the minimum consultation period is 30 days.

• Date:

  3 January 2008

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Laval Un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundet

  The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that industrial action by a trade union in Sweden to prevent a Latvian company from paying low wages to workers posted from Latvia could not be justified.

• Date:

  12 December 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Cooper and others v Isle of Wight College

  The High Court has held that an employer could deduct only 1/260th of salary from employees' pay in respect of a one-day strike, and not 1/228th, which discounted paid holiday.

• Date:

  24 November 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Redundancy: Employers must consult over reasons for closure

  In UK Coal Mining Ltd v (1) National Union of Mineworkers (Northumberland Area) (2) The British Association of Colliery Management EAT/0397/06 & EAT/0141/07, the EAT held that the duty to consult about ways of "avoiding" redundancies inevitably involves consultation about the reasons behind the proposed dismissals and, contrary to previous authority, is not limited to consultation about how the redundancies are to be effected.

• Date:

  17 October 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Félix Palacios de la Villa v Cortefiel Servicios SA

  In Félix Palacios de la Villa v Cortefiel Servicios SA Case C-411/05, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given its judgment that the Equal Treatment Directive (2000/78/EC) does not preclude a Spanish law permitting clauses in collective agreements that allow employees to be compulsorily retired when they reach a specified age.