Continuity of employment: Absence by custom preserves temporary employee's continuity

In Hygena Ltd v Cook & others 23.7.96 EAT 362/96, the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal was entitled to find that the continuity of employment of a member of a pool of temporary employees was preserved despite breaks in employment when there was no work. This was because a custom had developed whereby the employer selected members from this pool to fill full-time vacancies which arose by taking into account the total length of time they had been in the pool regardless of any absences.