Pay and benefits
In Anderson v Jarvis Hotels EATS/0062/05, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that an employee was contractually entitled to be paid for periods when he was required to sleep on the employer's premises, even though he rarely had to carry out any work during these periods.
In Hoyland v Asda Stores Ltd [2006] All ER (D) 133 CS, the Court of Session holds that despite being described as "discretionary" a bonus scheme was "regulated" by the employee's contract of employment and therefore fell outside the scope of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
In British Airways plc v Noble and another [2006] IRLR 533 CA, the Court of Appeal has held that a reduction of 4/52 in employees' shift pay, spread evenly throughout the year, is not a breach of the Working Time Regulations 1998.
In MacCartney v Oversley House Management, the EAT the Employment Appeal Tribunal holds that an employee who was required to remain on call at or close to her place of work was 'working' even if her employer provided her with a home at her place of work.
In Farrell Matthews & Weir v Hansen, the EAT holds that a non-contractual bonus that had been declared constituted wages under s.27(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The employer's failure to pay it therefore amounted to an unlawful deduction from wages.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of the High Court in Wilson (HM Inspector of Taxes) v Clayton that a payment from an employer under a compromise agreement should be treated as a termination payment under s.403 of the Income (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003.
In Usetech Ltd v Young (Inspector of Taxes) [2004] EWHC 2248 HC, the High Court found that where an individual provided his services through his own service company and an agency all the contracts were subsumed into one. The relevant terms identified and transferred to the notional contract between the individual and the hirer were consistent with those of an employment contract.
In Guthrie v Scottish Courage Ltd [2004] All ER (D) 15 (Jun) EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld a tribunal chair's decision that the employer had made an unlawful deduction from wages when it withheld company sick pay because it had reached a perverse conclusion that the employee's illness was not genuine.
In Coutts & Co plc v Cure; Royal Bank of Scotland v Fraser, the EAT holds that, in a case where an employer refused to pay a non-contractual bonus to all non-permanent employees, including some fixed-term workers, the tribunal did not err in law by holding that the reason for the less favourable treatment was on the ground of the employees' status as fixed-term workers.
In Allonby v Accrington & Rossendale College and others, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules that a lecturer employed through an agency could not claim equal pay with lecturers employed directly by the college, but she could claim entitlement to join the lecturers' statutory pension scheme even though it was open only to those with a contract of employment.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to pay and benefits.