Sector focus
In Kaur v Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the Court of Appeal held that, in "last straw" cases, an employee may rely on earlier affirmed breaches of contract provided that the later act forms part of the series.
In Hextall v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police and another, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) remitted to a fresh tribunal the issue of whether or not a police force's policy of giving a period of full pay to mothers on maternity leave, but paying only statutory shared parental pay to partners, is indirectly discriminatory.
In Abrahall and others v Nottingham City Council and another, the Court of Appeal held that a number of employees who had continued to work without protest throughout a two-year pay freeze had not agreed to a variation of their contracts of employment.
In Fleming v East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that covert recordings of the private deliberations of the disciplinary panel were admissible as evidence, except for any content covered by legal professional privilege.
In Reilly v Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, the Supreme Court held that a head teacher was fairly dismissed for failing to disclose her association with a convicted sex offender.
In Hale v Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that the decision to instigate the disciplinary procedure was not a one-off act, but the start of a state of affairs that would continue until the conclusion of the disciplinary process.
In NHS 24 v Pillar EAT/0051/16, the EAT held that the inclusion in an investigative report of details about previous conduct in respect of which no disciplinary action was taken did not render a misconduct dismissal unfair.
In Royal Surrey County NHS Foundation Trust v Drzymala, the Employment Appeal Tribunal considered the fairness of an employee's dismissal by her employer's decision not to renew her fixed-term contract, including the effect of the employer's compliance with the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002.
In Day v Health Education England and others [2017] IRLR 623 CA, the Court of Appeal held that a trainee doctor was not prevented from bringing a whistleblowing claim against the third-party introducer by the fact that he was engaged as a worker by the hospital trust to which he was assigned. His claim could proceed if the introducer could be said to substantially determine the conditions under which he worked in accordance with s.43K of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
In Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts [2017] IRLR 870 EAT, the EAT held that payments for regularly worked voluntary overtime are part of a worker's "normal remuneration" for the purposes of calculating a week's pay in respect of a worker's holiday pay entitlement.
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