Managing employees/workers
In Berwick Salmon Fisheries Co Ltd v Rutherford and others the EAT holds that periods fishermen spent out of work between seasonal contracts of employment could not be described as "relatively short". The breaks were not therefore "temporary cessations of work" within the statutory definition and continuity of employment was broken.
An employer's right to require overtime from an employee who is under a contractual obligation to be "on call" for a specified number of hours in excess of his basic working week, is subject to the employer's implied duty to take reasonable care not to injure its employee's health, holds the Court of Appeal in Johnstone v Bloomsbury Health Authority.
An industrial tribunal was entitled to find that, in the circumstances of this case, lobbying of Parliament was not a trade union activity entitling union members to time off.
In Landsorganisationen i Danmark v NY Molle Kro [1989] IRLR 37 ECJ, the European Court of Justice held that the Acquired Rights Directive (EEC Directive 77/187) is applicable where, following a legal transfer or merger, there is a change in the legal or natural person who is responsible for carrying on the business and who by virtue of that fact incurs the obligations of an employer vis-a-vis employees of the undertaking, regardless of whether or not ownership of the undertaking is transferred.
In Lewis v Surrey County Council, the House of Lords rules that where an employee is employed under separate but concurrent part-time contracts, she is not entitled to aggregate the number of weekly hours worked under each contract in order to establish that a week "counts" towards a period of employment for the purposes of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978.
In Institution of Professional Civil Servants and others v Secretary of State for Defence the High Court rejects a complaint by various trade unions that the Secretary of State had not Informed and consulted them about a proposed transfer of two dockyards to commercial management, as required by s.1 of the Dockyard Services Act 1986.
In Spijkers v Gebroeders Benedik Abbatoir CV 24/85 [1986] ECR 1119 ECJ, the European Court of Justice ruled that Article 1(1) of the Acquired Rights Directive must be interpreted to the effect that the expression 'transfer of an undertaking, business or part of a business to another employer' envisages the case in which the business in question retains its identity.
In Delabole Slate Ltd v Berriman the Court of Appeal upholds the EAT's decision that a dismissal which occurs as a consequence of a change in terms of employment following the transfer of an undertaking is not a dismissal for "an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce", and so is automatically unfair under reg.8(1) of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981.
In assessing the reasonableness of the amount of paid time off for trade union duties under s.27(2) of the EP(C)A, the terms of a collectively agreed time off scheme ought to be taken into account, suggests the EAT in Ashley v Ministry of Defence.
An Industrial Tribunal's decision as to whether a contract is a contract of employment can only be overturned on appeal if the Tribunal misdirected itself in law or reached a perverse decision on the facts, the majority of the Court of Appeal concludes in the widely publicised case of O'Kelly and others v Trusthouse Forte Plc.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to managing employees/workers.