Collective employee relations

New and updated

• Date:

  15 October 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Information and consultation: Penalty imposed for serious breach

  Where the Central Arbitration Committee has found an employer to be in breach of certain obligations under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004, the EAT may order the employer to pay a financial penalty to the secretary of state. In the first case to arise on this point, Amicus v MacMillan Publishers Ltd EAT/0185/07, the EAT ordered the employer to pay £55,000 in respect of a "very grave" breach.

• Date:

  4 September 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Redundancy: Volunteers for redundancy did not resign but were dismissed

  In Optare Group Ltd v Transport and General Workers Union EAT/0143/07 the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a tribunal was right to hold that voluntary redundancies counted towards the total number of proposed redundancy dismissals at an establishment, which in this case was sufficient to trigger the statutory collective consultation requirements.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round-up

  Judith Harris, professional support lawyer at Addleshaw Goddard, outlines the latest legal rulings.

• Date:

  30 May 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Human rights: Union did not act unlawfully in expelling BNP member

  In Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) v United Kingdom [2007] IRLR 361, a case of competing rights of association under art. 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, a trade union's right to expel a member of the BNP because his values conflicted fundamentally with its own outweighed the individual's right to membership of the union.

• Date:

  17 April 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Protective awards: A protective award for failure to consult a recognised trade union does not extend to cover employees in respect of whom the trade union is not recognised

  In Transport & General Workers' Union v Brauer Coley Ltd (in administration) [2007] IRLR 207 EAT the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that where a trade union is successful in proceedings brought for failure to consult on collective redundancies, the protective award cannot be claimed by any employees in respect of whom the trade union was not recognised by the employer.

• Date:

  20 March 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Bull and another v Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority; Lincolnshire County Council v Fire Brigades Union and others

  In Bull and another v Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority; Lincolnshire County Council v Fire Brigades Union and others [2007] All ER (D) 372 (Feb) CA, the Court of Appeal has held that it is not part of fire-fighters' normal contractual duties under a collective agreement to go to accidents and emergencies that would normally be dealt with by ambulance crews.

• Date:

  2 February 2007

  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:

  1 November 2006

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Collective redundancies: Tribunal's discretion in making protective awards

  In Leicestershire County Council v Unison [2006] IRLR 810 CA, the Court of Appeal holds that a tribunal was entitled to make the maximum protective award in respect of a group of employees who had been dismissed and offered new terms without consultation with the relevant unions.

• Date:

  20 October 2006

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Information and consultation: "Pre-existing agreements" - compliance with information and consultation criteria

  In Stewart v Moray Council [2006] IRLR 592 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal holds that where multiple pre-existing agreements collectively cover all employees, each must be approved by the employees covered by that particular agreement and detail how the employees will be informed and consulted.

• Date:

  4 August 2006

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Collective redundancies: No fresh compliance with duty to consult required

  In Vauxhall Motors Ltd v Transport and General Workers Union EAT/0657/05, the Employment Appeal Tribunal holds that where an employer commences consultation in compliance with the statutory requirements, but no redundancies take place until a much later date, no fresh compliance will be required if meaningful consultation has continued during the interim period.