Contracts of employment

New and updated

• Date:

  15 December 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Exemption clauses: Contract of employment was "consumer contract"

  Section 3 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, which applies as between contracting parties where one "deals as consumer" to prevent the other from excluding or restricting any liability of his or hers for breach of contract, extends to contracts of employment, holds the High Court in Brigden v American Express Bank Ltd.

• Date:

  1 November 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Construction of contract: PHI cover did not cease when employee left service

  A restriction in an insurance policy underwriting a contractual permanent health insurance scheme, which disentitled an employee to benefits on leaving service, was not incorporated by reference or implication into his contract of employment, holds the High Court in Villella v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd.

• Date:

  15 September 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Breach of contract: Bank's wrongdoing constituted breach of trust and confidence term

  In Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (in compulsory liquidation) v Ali and others (No.3), the High Court holds that BCCI's dishonest conduct was sufficiently serious to amount to a breach by the bank of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence in the contracts of employment of all its former employees.

• Date:

  15 September 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Breach of contract: Employer was liable to make payment in lieu of notice without deduction for mitigation

  A provision of a contract of employment, which entitled the employer to terminate the contract either by giving the employee notice or summarily on paying him in lieu of notice, did not give the employer a third option of giving no notice and making no, or less than full, payment, holds the EAT in Cerberus Software Ltd v Rowley.

• Date:

  1 April 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Maximum 48-hour week is a statutorily implied term in all employment contracts

  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.

• Date:

  15 February 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Wrongful dismissal: Compensation for loss of chance to claim unfair dismissal

  Damages for wrongful dismissal may in principle include damages in respect of an employee's loss of the opportunity to bring an unfair dismissal complaint, holds the EAT in Raspin v United News Shops Ltd.

• Date:

  15 January 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Changing terms of relocation loan destroyed mutual trust and confidence

  In French v Barclays Bank plc, the Court of Appeal holds that a detrimental change in the terms on which a bridging loan was made to an employee who had been requested to relocate was a breach of the implied term of his contract of employment that the employer would not act so as to destroy the trust and confidence existing as between the employer and him.

• Date:

  15 January 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Employer was entitled to make long-term sick employee redundant

  In Hill v General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation plc, the Outer House of the Court of Session holds that there was no breach of the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence when an employer made an employee redundant while he was in receipt of contractual sick pay and had a prospective contractual entitlement to long-term sickness benefit.

• Date:

  31 December 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Midland Bank plc v McCann

  In Midland Bank plc v McCann (1998) IDS 623 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that with regard to a discretionary bonus the employer had not exercised its discretion in such a way that it could be said to be in breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence.

• Date:

  15 July 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Provisions of sickness absence code not contractually binding

  In London Borough of Wandsworth v D'Silva and another, the Court of Appeal holds that provisions of a code of practice on sickness absence which an employer was seeking to amend unilaterally were not contractually binding on that employer.