Pay and benefits

New and updated

• Date:

  31 December 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Guthrie v Scottish Courage Ltd

  In Guthrie v Scottish Courage Ltd [2004] All ER (D) 15 (Jun) EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld a tribunal chair's decision that the employer had made an unlawful deduction from wages when it withheld company sick pay because it had reached a perverse conclusion that the employee's illness was not genuine.

• Date:

  31 December 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Usetech Ltd v Young (Inspector of Taxes)

  In Usetech Ltd v Young (Inspector of Taxes) [2004] EWHC 2248 HC, the High Court found that where an individual provided his services through his own service company and an agency all the contracts were subsumed into one. The relevant terms identified and transferred to the notional contract between the individual and the hirer were consistent with those of an employment contract.

• Date:

  24 December 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Fixed-term workers: Fixed-term detriment found despite application to other groups

  In Coutts & Co plc v Cure; Royal Bank of Scotland v Fraser, the EAT holds that, in a case where an employer refused to pay a non-contractual bonus to all non-permanent employees, including some fixed-term workers, the tribunal did not err in law by holding that the reason for the less favourable treatment was on the ground of the employees' status as fixed-term workers.

• Type:

  FAQs

  Can benefits in kind count towards the national minimum wage?

• Type:

  Contract clauses

  Relocation expenses contract clause

  A model contract clause setting out terms relating to the recovery of relocation expenses where an employee is required by their employer to move closer to their workplace.. This clause allows an organisation to reclaim relocation expenses if an employee's employment is terminated within a certain period.

• Type:

  FAQs

  Is it ever permissible for an employer to withhold bonus payments?

• Date:

  1 March 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Agency worker is entitled to membership of pension scheme

  In Allonby v Accrington & Rossendale College and others, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules that a lecturer employed through an agency could not claim equal pay with lecturers employed directly by the college, but she could claim entitlement to join the lecturers' statutory pension scheme even though it was open only to those with a contract of employment.

• Date:

  20 February 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Employee bound by onerous contractual term

  In Peninsula Business Services Ltd v Sweeney the EAT holds that a sales executive's contract of employment incorporated the rules governing the employer's commission scheme, which specified that no payments of commission would be made if the employee was no longer in the employment at the date the commission would have been payable. Those rules were clearly set out in a written document that was specifically referred to as forming part of the contract, and which had been signed by the employee.

• Date:

  1 January 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Martin and others v South Bank University

  In Martin and others v South Bank University [2004] IRLR 74 ECJ, the European Court of Justice held that early retirement benefits should be paid for by a new employer after a transfer of undertakings.

• Date:

  31 December 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Hepworth Heating Ltd v Akers and others

  In Hepworth Heating Ltd v Akers and others [2003] All ER (D) 33 (Jul) EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the employer had not used an unlawful act to compel acceptance of a cashless pay system. The employees might have been unhappy with the new terms, but there had been no duress.