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Contracts of employment: Employer was under freestanding contractual obligation to make disability payments

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    Jowitt v Pioneer Technology (UK) Ltd [2003] IRLR 356 CA (0 other reports)

Key points

  • In Pioneer Technology (UK) Ltd v Jowitt 18.3.03 Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal holds that a contractual clause that, independently of the employer's insurance policy, provided for long-term disability payments to be made to employees no longer able to work due to illness or injury, amounted to a freestanding obligation on the employer to provide such payments to a qualifying employee in circumstances where cover was excluded by the insurance policy.
  • The words "unable to work" in the contractual provision covered the situation where there was no continuous remunerative full-time work that the employee could realistically be expected to do, either within the organisation or elsewhere.