Breach of contract
In Hill v General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation plc, the Outer House of the Court of Session holds that there was no breach of the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence when an employer made an employee redundant while he was in receipt of contractual sick pay and had a prospective contractual entitlement to long-term sickness benefit.
In Midland Bank plc v McCann (1998) IDS 623 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that with regard to a discretionary bonus the employer had not exercised its discretion in such a way that it could be said to be in breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence.
In London Borough of Wandsworth v D'Silva and another, the Court of Appeal holds that provisions of a code of practice on sickness absence which an employer was seeking to amend unilaterally were not contractually binding on that employer.
In the absence of an express contractual term entitling a bookmaker to send the senior dealer in its spread-betting business on garden leave, it was under an obligation to allow him to perform the duties of the post to which it had appointed him in accordance with his contract both during his notice period and before he gave in his notice, holds the Court of Appeal in William Hill Organisation Ltd v Tucker.
An employee's contract of employment continued after an exchange of letters between the employee, giving one month's notice of termination, and her employer, confirming that it did not want her to work out her notice period and that her salary would be paid in lieu at the end of the notice period, holds the Court of Appeal in Hutchings v Coinseed Ltd.
An employer did not act in fundamental breach of an employee's contract of employment when it required him to retire at the age of 55, in accordance with its retirement policy aimed at achieving a younger workforce, even though the contract incorporated an equal opportunities policy containing an express commitment to offer equal opportunities regardless of age, rules the EAT in Secretary of State for Scotland v Taylor.
An employer's failure to ban smoking in a poorly ventilated workplace, after it became clear that measures already introduced to resolve the problem of passive smoking were inadequate, was in repudiatory breach of an implied contractual term that it would provide and monitor for its employees, so far as reasonably practicable, a working environment which was reasonably suitable for the performance of their contractual duties, holds the EAT in Waltons & Morse v Dorrington.
In principle, employees can recover "stigma" damages in respect of their reasonably foreseeable loss of employment prospects resulting from their employer's breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, holds the House of Lords in Malik and another v Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (in compulsory liquidation).
In Sarker v South Tees Acute Hospitals NHS Trust the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal had jurisdiction to hear a breach of contract claim brought by an employee whose contract of employment was terminated by the employer before the date on which she was due to start work.
An employee who was dismissed without notice in breach of his contract of employment was released from the further performance of that contract and so was not bound by his contractual obligation to repay relocation expenses received from his employer, holds the EAT in Pearce v Roy T Ward (Consultants) Ltd.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to breach of contract.