Contracts of employment

Deliveroo riders, union recognition and 'worker' status

Riders for Deliveroo are not in an ‘employment relationship’ for the purposes of European law such as to enable them to seek compulsory union recognition.

Bonus clawback and restraint of trade

A contractual clause requiring an employee who had given notice to repay a discretionary bonus was not a restraint of trade, and the employer was entitled to rely on it and receive the repayment.

Whether contract was varied or terminated

An employee’s contract had been terminated by the employer’s unilateral imposition of new terms and conditions.

Benefits under long-term sickness scheme

An employer was liable to pay the level of income protection payments set out in an offer letter and summary of benefits provided by the employee’s original employer prior to a TUPE transfer, even though those benefits were no longer covered under the employer’s insurance policy.

Fire and rehire: implied terms and injunctions

An employer was entitled to dismiss and offer to re-engage employees on new terms (fire and rehire) to remove pay protection it had originally referred to as ‘permanent’. An earlier injunction preventing it from doing so was overturned.

Resignation, dismissal and PILONs

Where an employee resigns and the employer brings forward the termination date by exercising its right to make a contractual payment in lieu of notice, there is no dismissal.

Establishing 'worker' status: no minimum obligation required

An ‘irreducible minimum of obligation’ is not a prerequisite of ‘worker’ status. Such a status will exist when an individual undertakes to do work personally for someone who isn’t a client or customer.

Work outside the contract and unauthorised deductions

An employee could not make a claim for an unlawful deduction/underpayment of wages where he took up a more senior position but did not receive a contractual salary increase.

Employee status and franchisees

Owner-driver franchisees who carried out delivery and collection services for DPD were neither employees nor workers.

Worker status and substitution clauses

A delivery courier was a ‘worker’ despite his agreement containing what purported to be a substitution clause.

Uber drivers are 'workers' says Supreme Court

Drivers for Uber are workers and therefore entitled to paid holiday, minimum wage and rest breaks.

Affirmation of contract: grievance procedure

For the purposes of a constructive dismissal claim, an employee did not affirm his contract by engaging in his employer’s grievance procedure.

Constructive dismissal: acceptance of breach

An employee’s failure to return to work after her maternity leave amounted to acceptance of a repudiatory breach for the purposes of an unfair constructive dismissal claim.

Worker status under the Working Time Directive

The ECJ has held that a courier appeared to have been correctly classified as self- employed rather than as a worker, given his independence and the lack of subordination.

PHI benefits and long-term disability

An employee was rightly compensated for loss of entitlement to benefits under a PHI policy when he was unable to ‘return to work’ following sickness absence. The ‘return to work’ was a return to the work he had been doing when he went off sick, not a return to any work.

Suspension and injunction

A suspended employee successfully obtained an injunction against her employer allowing her to resume most of her duties because there was no justification to restrict such duties.

Salary information and confidentiality

There is no implied term that salary details are confidential.

Suspension was not warranted and breached implied term of trust and confidence

Suspending an employee accused of gross misconduct breached the implied term of trust and confidence leading to an unfair constructive dismissal and if an employer wants to argue that the employee has been dismissed for a fair reason, they must specifically set this out in their defence.

Pay and holiday variation accepted by conduct

An employee had accepted, by her subsequent conduct, collectively agreed changes to pay and holiday arrangements that had been in place for several years.

Disciplinary hearings and police investigations

An employer does not usually need to wait for the conclusion of criminal proceedings before starting or continuing with internal disciplinary proceedings.

Written particulars of employment

An employee with at least one month’s - but less than two months’ - continuous employment had a right to a written statement of employment particulars.

Deliveroo riders aren't 'workers' for collective bargaining purposes

The right to statutory recognition of a union under art. 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) does not apply to delivery drivers who had specifically been found not to be workers as they had a genuine right of substitution which had been exercised.

Addison Lee drivers are 'workers'

Three drivers for a taxi and courier company were ‘workers’ and not independent contractors.

Ambiguous resignations

An employee’s letter giving ‘notice’ wasn’t an unambiguous resignation.

Enforcing post-termination restrictions and unsigned employment contracts

An employer wanting to vary an employment contract to incorporate more onerous post-termination restrictive covenants must ensure it has evidence of valid consideration for the change and should always obtain proof of agreement from the employee; ideally in the form of signature.

Resigning on notice may amount to affirmation

When an employee resigns and claims wrongful dismissal (not constructive dismissal), but does so on notice, where there is a lengthy notice period, they have affirmed the contract and so lost the ability to claim wrongful dismissal. However, if further breaches occur after affirmation, they are entitled to count the earlier affirmed breaches and claim that cumulatively they have caused the employee to resign without notice. Their restrictive covenants also do not apply.

Zero-hours contracts and pay while suspended

Is a zero-hours contract employee entitled to pay whilst they are suspended and thus not working any hours?

Effective date of termination and minimum notice

Where there is a genuine entitlement to summarily dismiss, an employee cannot rely on the deeming provisions in the Employment Rights Act to get to two years’ qualifying service.

No mutuality of obligation defeats 'employee' claim

Where there was no obligation to provide or accept work, and the other features of the relationship were not inconsistent with this, there was no contract of employment.

Pimlico plumber was a 'worker'

The Supreme Court has handed down its decision in the Pimlico Plumbers case which focussed specifically on the question of whether a plumber stated to be self-employed in his contract was in fact a worker. It unanimously upheld the decision of all the courts below that Mr Smith was indeed a worker.

Cycle courier was a 'worker'

The EAT reject an appeal by a courier company against a tribunal decision that one of its cycle couriers was a ‘worker’ entitled to paid holiday.

Continuing to work and affirmation of contractual changes

Employees who continued to work following their employer’s imposition of a pay freeze did not thereby agree to a variation of contract, despite the fact that their tribunal claim wasn’t begun until two years later.

Date when notice of termination is effective

Where a contract is silent on when notice takes effect, it is effective when it’s actually received by the employee and they have read it (or had a reasonable opportunity to do so).

Bonus didn't have to be paid during garden leave

There was no breach of contract where an employer refused to pay a minimum bonus during the employee’s period of garden leave. Against a background of declining revenues and the employee’s refusal to forgo his bonus, the decision to place him on garden leave was not irrational.

Unlawful deductions from wages in switch from weekly to monthly pay

Continuing to work and receive pay (and an employer loan) did not amount to acceptance of a unilaterally-imposed contractual variation.

Deliveroo couriers are self-employed

Riders for Deliveroo are not ‘workers’ but rather independent contractors according to a ruling by the Central Arbitration Committee.

Uber drivers are 'workers'

Drivers for Uber are ‘workers’ says the EAT. Dismissing Uber’s appeal, the EAT holds that the drivers worked for Uber as part of its business rather than there being any sort of agency relationship.

Exclusive jurisdiction clause was unenforceable

An exclusive jurisdiction clause in Ryanair cabin crew contracts, which stipulated that only the Irish courts had jurisdiction with regard to any claims made by Ryanair’s employees, was not enforceable.

Restructuring and impact on agreed flexible working pattern

An employer’s handling of a restructure which impacted upon an agreed flexible working pattern led to a successful constructive dismissal claim.

Plumber confirmed as 'worker'

Pimlico Plumbers v Smith

 

A plumber engaged by a London firm, Pimlico Plumbers and described as ‘self-employed’ was in fact a ‘worker’ says the Court of Appeal, upholding the original judgment of the employment tribunal.