Pay and benefits

New and updated

• Date:

  1 January 1993

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Fairfield Ltd v Skinner

  In Fairfield Ltd v Skinner [1993] IRLR 4 EAT, the EAT held that there must be justification for making a deduction from wages, even when authority has been given in the contract.

• Date:

  1 January 1993

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Pepper (HM Inspector of Taxes) v Hart and others

  In Pepper (HM Inspector of Taxes) v Hart and others [1993] IRLR 33 HL, the House of Lords held that in-house benefits, and particularly concessionary school fees for teachers' children, should be assessed for tax on the basis of the additional or marginal cost to the employer of providing the benefit.

• Date:

  15 March 1992

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Wages Act: Agreement did not authorise deduction of training costs

  An agreement under which an employee was liable to repay a proportion of a training course fee to his employer if his employment terminated within a certain period did not specifically authorise repayment by way of a deduction from wages, holds the EAT in Potter v Hunt Contracts Ltd.

• Date:

  15 January 1992

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Employer obliged to notify employees of contingent rights

  In some circumstances, an employer is under an implied obligation to notify its employees of any rights which they have under their contracts of employment which are dependent upon them taking some sort of action, rules the House of Lords in Scally and others v Southern Health and Social Services Board and others.

• Date:

  8 March 1991

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Doctors' hours under attack

  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.

• Date:

  22 February 1991

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Implied term on employee insurance cover

  In Rutherford v Radio Rentals Ltd, the Court of Session holds that to give effect to an employer's contractual obligation to provide personal accident insurance for its employees, it may be necessary to imply a further term that the employer must make a payment to any employee who qualifies under the terms of the insurance policy referred to in the contract. The employer cannot discharge its obligations merely by relying on a refusal by the insurance company to honour the policy.

• Date:

  31 December 1990

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Glynn v Commissioner of Inland Revenue

  In Glynn v Commissioner of Inland Revenue [1990] 2 WLR 633, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council found that school fees paid on behalf of an employee were a taxable benefit.

• Date:

  19 June 1990

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sex discrimination: Equality required in occupational pensions

  The European Court of Justice holds that occupational pensions payable under a contracted-out scheme constitute "pay" under Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome, and so must be offered to men and women on equal terms.

• Date:

  1 August 1986

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Bilka-Kaufhaus GmbH v Weber von Hartz

  In Bilka-Kaufhaus GmbH v Weber von Hartz [1986] IRLR 317 ECJ, the European Court of Justice held that the exclusion of part-time workers from occupational pension schemes contravenes Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome if this exclusion affects significantly more women than men, unless the employer can show that the exclusion is based on objectively justified factors unrelated to any discrimination on grounds of sex.

• Date:

  1 April 1986

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Coales v John Wood & Co (Solicitors)

  In Coales v John Wood & Co [1986] IRLR 129 EAT, the EAT held that the obligation on an employer to provide an employee with a written itemised pay statement at or before the time at which any payment of wages or salary is made is an absolute one and is not conditional upon the employee requesting such a statement.