Managing employees/workers
The question of whether the whole or a majority of a transferee contractor's workforce is taken on by the putative transferor cannot be determinative of whether or not there has been a relevant transfer of an undertaking under the EC Business Transfer Directive and the domestic Transfer of Undertakings Regulations, holds the EAT in Cheeseman and others v R Brewer Contracts Ltd and Onyx (UK) Ltd v Cheeseman and others.
In Motorola Ltd v Davidson and another, dealing solely with the issue of control, the EAT holds that a client of an employment agency had sufficient control over the worker assigned to it to sustain a finding that it was in fact the employer of the worker.
In Sindicato de Médicos de Asistencia Pública (Simap) v Conselleria de Sanidad y Consumo de la Generalidad Valenciana, the ECJ rules that all of the time spent on call by teams of doctors providing primary care at health centres was "working time", within the meaning of the EC Working Time Directive, if they were required to be at the health centres.
Pregnant cabin crew who volunteered for ground duties to which they were deployed were not offered "suitable alternative work" within the meaning of s.67(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, because the terms and conditions applicable to that alternative work were substantially less favourable than the corresponding terms and conditions for their normal work, holds the EAT in British Airways (European Operations at Gatwick) Ltd v Moore and another.
Employees whose contractual working hours were 39 hours per week but who, in practice, were required to work six hours' overtime made available to them to the extent of 45 hours per week were not guaranteed that overtime, so holds the EAT in Spence and others v City of Sunderland Council.
The principal reason for the dismissal of a transferor's employees, purportedly on the grounds of redundancy, was the impending transfer of the undertaking, holds the EAT in Kerry Foods Ltd v Creber and others.
In Carmichael and another v National Power plc, the House of Lords holds that two women who accepted a company's written offer of employment as tour guides "on a casual as required basis", and then worked as guides on invitation when they were available and chose to work, were not employees under contracts of employment.
In Rama v South West Trains, the High Court confirms that the test to determine safety representatives' entitlement to paid leave to attend health and safety training is not limited to training that is necessary to enable representatives to fulfil their functions.
In determining the question of continuity of employment for statutory employment protection purposes, employment tribunals need only examine each relevant week (that is, a week ending on a Saturday) to ascertain whether or not during any part of it an employee was working under a contract of employment for the employer against whom a claim is brought, holds the EAT in Sweeney v J & S Henderson (Concessions) Ltd.
In R v Attorney General for Northern Ireland ex parte Burns [1999] IRLR 315 NIHCQB, Northern Ireland High Court, Queen's Bench Division held that that the failure of the Government to transpose the Working Time Directive in time was an actionable breach of Community law.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to managing employees/workers.