Pay and benefits
An employer was not entitled to withhold sick pay from an employee who took sick leave because of anxiety and depression immediately after being disciplined for misconduct, notwithstanding a contractual clause excluding such entitlement where sickness was "due, or attributable, to his own misconduct", the EAT holds in Manchester City Council v Thurston.
In Hagen and others v ICI Chemicals and Polymers Ltd, the High Court holds that on the facts, an employer owed a duty to take reasonable care as to the truth of statements made to its employees in relation to a TUPE transfer.
The Court of Appeal gives important guidance on how far tribunals need to go in exploring the circumstances of a claim. Plus cases on protected disclosure, redundancy selection, discrimination by an agent, working time exemptions and constructive dismissal.
In Chequepoint (UK) Ltd v Radwan, the Court of Appeal upholds an employment tribunal's award of damages to a dismissed employee in respect of unpaid bonuses.
In Beveridge v KLM UK Ltd [2000] IRLR 765 EAT, the EAT held that when an employee is fit and willing to work, the employer is obliged to pay the employee his or her normal wages or salary unless there is an express term in the contract of employment authorising the employer to withhold pay in certain defined circumstances.
A contractual discretion whether or not to award an equity trader any, and if so what, bonus, which was "dependent upon individual performance", was one that had to be exercised both by reference to an assessment of performance of the trader's contract and not irrationally or perversely, holds the High Court in Clark v Nomura International plc.
In Lawson and others v Edmonds, the Court of Appeal holds that, although a pupil barrister did make a legally binding contract with the members of the chambers where she was a pupil, she did not enter into, or work under, a contract of apprenticeship or an equivalent contract.
Employees whose contractual working hours were 39 hours per week but who, in practice, were required to work six hours' overtime made available to them to the extent of 45 hours per week were not guaranteed that overtime, so holds the EAT in Spence and others v City of Sunderland Council.
A restriction in an insurance policy underwriting a contractual permanent health insurance scheme, which disentitled an employee to benefits on leaving service, was not incorporated by reference or implication into his contract of employment, holds the High Court in Villella v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd.
There was no transfer to which the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations applied when an industrial and provident society took over the management of local authority care homes by, in effect, acquiring the shares of the company that ran the homes and employed the staff who worked in them, holds the EAT in Brookes and others v Borough Care Services and CLS Care Services Ltd.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to pay and benefits.