Breach of contract
This week's case of the week, provided by DLA Piper, covers varying contracts of employment.
This article looks at some of the important judgments in the area of the transfer of undertakings over the past year.
In Jackson v Computershare Investor Services plc [2007] EWCA Civ 1065, the Court of Appeal ruled that the provision in the TUPE Regulations to the effect that a transferred contract of employment will have effect after the transfer as if originally made between the employee and the transferee could not be construed so as to give the employee a contractual benefit to which she had not been entitled under her original contract.
In Przybylska v Modus Telecom Ltd EAT/0566/06 the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a tribunal was wrong to imply into a contract a term that the employer could carry out a review of the probationary period within a reasonable time of the expiry of the probationary period.
In Millam v The Print Factory (London) 1991 Ltd [2007] IRLR 526 CA, the Court of Appeal held that where the operation - as opposed to the ownership of a business - transferred to a new owner, TUPE applied notwithstanding that the business was acquired on a sale of shares.
This week's case of the week, provided by Addleshaw Goddard, covers discretionary bonuses.
This week's case of the week, provided by Lovells, covers restrictive covenants.
In Helmet Integrated Systems Ltd v Tunnard and others [2007] IRLR 126 CA, the Court of Appeal has held that it was not a breach of contract or any fiduciary duties when an employee failed to inform his employer that he was taking preparatory steps to develop a product that was intended, following his resignation, to be marketed in competition with the employer.
In Fraser v HLMAD Ltd [2006] IRLR 687 CA, the Court of Appeal holds that claimants who bring claims for wrongful dismissal in the employment tribunal, where a statutory limit on damages of £25,000 applies, cannot recover losses in excess of this limit in the High Court.
In Horkulak v Cantor Fitzgerald International [2004] IRLR 942 CA, the Court of Appeal held that, even where the employment contract states that payment of a bonus is discretionary, the employer is under an implied duty to exercise that discretion genuinely and rationally, and a wrongfully dismissed employee could recover damages that reflect the bonus payments that he could have expected to receive had he remained in employment.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to breach of contract.