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Managing employees/workers

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  • Date:
    15 April 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Suspension on maternity grounds: Alternative work offered to employees suspended on maternity grounds was unsuitable

    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.

  • Date:
    1 February 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Normal working hours: No obligation to provide non-contractual overtime

    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.

  • Date:
    1 January 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Transfer of undertakings: Dismissal by reason of transfer precludes finding of "ETO" reason

    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.

  • Date:
    1 January 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Employment status: Tour guides engaged on "casual as required basis" were not employees

    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.

  • Type:
    Employment law cases

    Paid leave covers "aspects" of safety reps' functions

    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.

  • Date:
    1 June 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Continuity of employment: Motive behind "gap" in employment irrelevant for continuity purposes

    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.

  • Date:
    1 May 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    R v Attorney General for Northern Ireland ex parte Burns

    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.

  • Date:
    15 April 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Employment status: Controlling shareholder could also be employee

    In Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v Bottrill, the Court of Appeal upholds an employment tribunal's finding that a controlling shareholder of a company could also be an employee of that company for the purposes of the employment protection legislation.

  • 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

    Continuity of employment: Continuity not preserved during two-week breaks between contracts

    Employees employed by the same employer for total periods of between four and six years under a succession of temporary contracts of less than two years' duration, were not regarded as continuing in employment by custom or arrangement during regular two-week breaks between those contracts, holds the EAT in Booth and others v United States of America.

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