End of employment

New and updated

• Date:

  1 January 1997

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Misconduct: Drunken employees were unfairly dismissed

  In Williams and others v Whitbread Beer Co the Court of Appeal restores the decision of an industrial tribunal that an employer unfairly dismissed three employees for drunken, abusive and violent behaviour in circumstances where the misconduct took place outside work and where it was the employer who had provided the opportunity for the employees to drink.

• Date:

  1 December 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Selkent Bus Co Ltd t/a Stagecoach Selkent v Moore

  In Selkent Bus Co Ltd t/a Stagecoach Selkent v Moore [1996] IRLR 661 EAT, the EAT set out guidance to industrial tribunals on the criteria to take into account in deciding whether to grant leave for amendment of an originating application.

• Date:

  1 November 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Redundancy: Relevance of "Compair Maxam guidelines"

  In Akzo Coatings plc v Thompson and others, the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal erred in law in applying the guidelines on redundancy selection in Williams and others v Compair Maxam Ltd to the way in which an employer dealt with the possibility of alternative employment for redundant employees.

• Date:

  1 October 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Deductions from wages: Individual notification of term authorising deductions required

  The posting in a factory of a notice which stated that accrued holiday pay would not be given to employees dismissed for gross misconduct did not amount to the requisite written notification to the workers of a contractual term authorising a deduction from their wages, holds the EAT in (1) Kerr v The Sweater Shop (Scotland) Ltd (2) The Sweater Shop (Scotland) Ltd v Park.

• Date:

  1 August 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Dismissal: Imposition of new terms amounted to express dismissal

  The unilateral imposition of a continuous rolling shift pattern in place of the traditional shifts previously worked by employees in accordance with their contracts amounted to an express dismissal of those employees, who reserved their right to complain of unfair dismissal even though they worked under the new system, holds the EAT in Alcan Extrusions v Yates and others.

• Date:

  15 July 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Restrictive covenants enforced after garden leave

  There is no legal basis on which a court can, in enforcing a restrictive covenant by injunction, allow some kind of set-off against the period during which the employee has been on garden leave, holds the Court of Appeal in Armstrong and others v Credit Suisse Asset Management Ltd.

• Date:

  15 June 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transfer of undertakings: Employee's objection to transfer meant no dismissal

  An industrial tribunal was entitled to find that an employee objected to transferring to a new employer and informed his employer of that objection, holds the EAT in Hay v George Hanson (Building Contractors) Ltd.

• Date:

  15 June 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Implied terms: No implied contractual right to enhanced redundancy pay

  In Quinn and others v Calder Industrial Materials Ltd the EAT upholds an industrial tribunal's ruling that the employer was not in breach of contract by failing to make enhanced redundancy payments to redundant employees.

• Date:

  15 June 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Misconduct: Aggravating factors justified disparity of treatment

  An employee was fairly dismissed for misconduct even though another employee who was guilty of the same conduct was treated differently and given a final written warning, holds the EAT in London Borough of Harrow v Cunningham.

• Date:

  15 April 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Redundancy consultation: Definition of "establishment" under Collective Redundancies Directive

  An "establishment" for the purposes of the EC Collective Redundancies Directive means the unit to which the workers made redundant are assigned to carry out their duties, rules the ECJ in Rockfon A/S v Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark.