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.
In Thames Water Utilities v Reynolds, the EAT holds that the Apportionment Act 1870 applied to the computation of a day's annual holiday pay to which an employee was contractually entitled on termination of his employment, and that the meaning of "a day" for these purposes is a calendar day rather than a working day.
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.