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Contracts of employment: Employer's aggressive tactics repudiated contracts

This report relates to 1 case(s)

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    Cantor Fitzgerald International v Bird [2002] IRLR 867 HC (3 other reports)

    • Keeping secrets and not competing

      Date:
      18 November 2005

      A round-up of developments in the implied duty of confidentiality and express contractual terms on confidential information and restraints on competition.

    • Bad behaviour costs dear

      Date:
      1 October 2002

      The manner in which managers at City brokers Cantor Fitzgerald tried to introduce new financial terms for two of its brokers ultimately invalidated vital restrictive covenants in their contracts. Chris Southam urges firms to learn the lesson that macho management can have unforeseen consequences.

    • Case round up

      Date:
      1 October 2002

      Our resident experts at Pinsent Curtis Biddle bring you a comprehensive update on all the latest decisions that could affect your organisation, and advice on what to do about them.

Key points

  • An employer was in repudiatory breach of the implied trust and confidence term when its senior executives pressurised two City brokers to accept a variation to their contractual terms, which would have resulted in them being paid on a commission-only basis and losing valuable rights to fixed annual remuneration plus bonuses, the High Court holds in Cantor Fitzgerald International v Bird and others [2002] IRLR 867.
  • The employees were entitled to resign without notice on the basis of the executives' aggressive and persistent "hard sell" tactics in respect of the proposed changes, and their liberal use of obscene language, which was extreme, even by the robust standards of City broking firms, the Court held.