Team Move Update – 11 KBW
“What developments have there been now that the dust has settled on the Tullett litigation?”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 1st June 2012
Source: www.11kbw.com
Category: contract of employment
Cavenagh v William Evans Ltd – WLR Daily
Cavenagh v William Evans Ltd: [2012] EWCA Civ 697; [2012] WLR (D) 164
“Where an employer had elected to lawfully dismiss an employee under the term of the service agreement on payment of salary in lieu of the notice period, the employer was liable to pay the salary in lieu to the employee as an accrued debt. The employer could not later avoid payment on the basis that the employee had committed a gross misconduct prior to the date of the dismissal which the employer had discovered after the date of the dismissal.”
WLR Daily, 24th May 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Mattu v University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust – WLR Daily
“The disciplinary proceedings of a public employer as to the dismissal of an employee under a contract of employment did not determine a “civil right” of the employee for the purposes of the right to a fair hearing pursuant to article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”
WLR Daily, 18th May 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Employment cannot transfer automatically from one employer to another without a relevant TUPE transfer – OUT-LAW.com
“An individual’s employment cannot be automatically transferred to another employer without following the proper procedures under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) Regulations, a tribunal has confirmed.”
OUT-LAW.com, 18th April 2012
Source: www.out-law.com
Huet v Université de Bretagne Occidentale – WLR Daily
Huet v Université de Bretagne Occidentale (Case C-251/11); [2012] WLR (D) 71
“National legislation which provided for conversion of fixed-term employment contracts into an employment contract of indefinite duration when the fixed-term employment contracts reached a certain duration did not have to require that the employment contract of indefinite duration reproduced in identical terms the principal clauses set out in the previous contract. However, in order not to undermine the practical effect of, or the objectives pursued by, Council Directive 1999/70/EC, the member state concerned had to ensure that the conversion of fixed-term employment contracts into an employment contract of indefinite duration was not accompanied by material amendments to the clauses of the previous contract in a way which was, overall, unfavourable to the person concerned when the subject-matter of that person’s tasks and the nature of his functions remain unchanged.”
WLR Daily, 8th March 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
O’Brien v Ministry of Justice – WLR Daily
O’Brien v Ministry of Justice (Case C-393/10); [2012] WLR (D) 58
“It was for the member states to define the concept of ‘workers who have an employment contract or an employment relationship’ within the meaning of clause 2.1 of the Framework Agreement on part-time work, provided that this did not lead to arbitrary exclusion from protection offered by Directive 97/81/EC.”
WLR Daily, 1st March 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Kücük v Land Nordrhein-Westfalen – WLR Daily
Kücük v Land Nordrhein-Westfalen Case C-586/10; [2012] WLR (D) 11
“Clause 5(1)(a) of the framework agreement on fixed-term work, in the Annex to Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP, meant that a temporary need for replacement staff, provided for by national legislation could, in principle, constitute an objective reason under that clause for the renewal of successive fixed-term contracts. The mere fact that an employer had to employ temporary replacements on a recurring, or even permanent, basis and that those replacements might also be covered by the hiring of employees under employment contracts of indefinite duration did not mean that there was no objective reason under clause 5(1)(a) or that there was abuse within the meaning of that clause.”
WLR Daily, 26th January 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Doctors advised against gagging order contracts – The Guardian
“Doctors are being instructed by the General Medical Council never to sign a contract with their employer containing a gagging clause that would prevent them from revealing dodgy or substandard practice.”
The Guardian, 26th January 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Bankers go to appeal court to claim €50m bonuses from 2008 – The Guardian
“More than 100 former employees of Dresdner Bank, based in London, will go to court this week to demand the payment of €50m (£41.5m) in bonuses they claim they have been owed since soon after the 2008 banking crash.”
Full story
The Guardian, 22nd January 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Andy Coulson sues News Group over refusal to pay phone hacking legal fees – Daily Telegraph
“Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, took his ex-employer News Group Newspapers to the High Court today over its refusal to reimburse his legal fees arising from the phone-hacking affair.”
Daily Telegraph, 7th December 2011
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
TUPE and Collective Agreements – 11 KBW
“Terms and conditions of employment are often found, especially in the public sector, not in the individual contracts of employment themselves, but in collective agreements between the employer and trade unions, collective agreements which are expressly incorporated into the individual contracts. If the employer and the unions agree changes in the collective agreement then the individual contracts will automatically be varied accordingly.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 24th November 2011
Source: www.11kbw.com
Vicar’s claim could make legal history – The Guardian
“A vicar who claims he was driven out of his picturesque rural parish is attempting to make legal history by having his complaints against the Church of England heard by an employment tribunal.”
The Guardian, 23rd November 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Heresy! Is Contract law different when applied to Employment? Part 1: Terms – 11 KBW
“Employment contracts are distinctive. The most obvious reason for this is statutory intervention. Statute regulates both the freedom of employers to select the individuals with whom they may make contracts of employmentand the terms of employment contracts. For example, in neither respect may the employer discriminate on grounds of sex, race, disability, etc.; and the contract must provide for a rate of pay greater than or equal to the national minimum wage.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 7th October 2011
Source: www.11kbw.com
Settling Employment Claims: some recent developments – 11KBW
“The settlement of ordinary commercial disputes is familiar territory for all lawyers, and settlements rarely require any particular formalities beyond sufficient clarity as to the terms of the agreement. This is equally so for purely contractual disputes in the field of employment, but there the comparison stops. It is a basic principle of statutory employment rights that the parties cannot simply contract out of the rights, and therefore particular formality is needed to effect an enforceable settlement of any employment dispute where the employee may make a claim based on statutory employment rights.”
Full story (PDF)
11KBW, 23rd September 2011
Source: www.11kbw.com
Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher and others – WLR Daily
Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher and others [2011] UKSC 41; [2011] WLR (D) 255
“In the employment context, the courts should focus on the reality of the relationship between the parties, which might not be accurately reflected by the written documentation. In deciding whether the terms of any written agreement in truth represented what was agreed, the relative bargaining power of the parties had to be taken into account.”
WLR Daily, 27th July 2011
Source; www.iclr.co.uk
Dismissed News of the World journalists may have grounds to sue – The Guardian
“Journalists dismissed by the News of the World who are unable to find new jobs and fear their professional reputations have been damaged by the phone hacking scandal could have legal grounds for suing News International, according to employment specialists.”
The Guardian, 10th July 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Volunteer could not claim disability discrimination because he had no employment contract, judge rules
“A paid army volunteer could not claim he had been discriminated against due to disability when work for the army stopped because he did not have an employment contract, an employment appeal tribunal judge has ruled.”
OUT-LAW.com, 4th May 2011
Source: www.out-law.com
Employment law changes would shift balance in bosses’ favour – The Guardian
“If the government pushes ahead with plans to double the one-year qualifying period, employees could have to work for two years before having the right to claim unfair dismissal.”
The Guardian, 3rd May 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Deutsche Lufthansa AG v Kumpan – WLR Daily
Deutsche Lufthansa AG v Kumpan (Case C-109/09); [2011] WLR (D) 90
“Where an employee was first employed on a contract for an indefinite period and then subsequently employed by the same employer to carry out the same work on successive fixed-term contracts over a period of several years, clause 5(1) of the Framework Agreement on fixed-term work, which had the objective of preventing the abuse of the successive use of fixed-term contracts, had to be interpreted as meaning, in relation to the imposition of the final fixed-term contract, that according to the national law ‘a close objective connection with a previous employment contract of indefinite duration concluded with the same employer’ existed.”
WLR Daily, 10th March 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Please note that once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Koelzsch v État du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg – WLR Daily
Koelzsch v État du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (Case C-29/10); [2011] WLR (D) 93
“Where an employee carries out activities in more than one contracting state the country in which the employee ‘habitually carries out his work in performance of the contract’, within the meaning of article 6(2)(a) of the Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations, was that in which or from which, in the light of all the factors which characterised that activity, the employee performed the greater part of his obligations towards his employer.”
WLR Daily, 15th March 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Please note that once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
