Wednesday 13 October 2010

2 New important employment judgments

1) Gisda Cyf (Appellant) v Barratt (Respondent)
[2010] UKSC 41

EDT

The Claimant must be informed of the event that triggers the start of that period, namely, their dismissal or, at least, he or she must have the chance to find out that that short period has begun. Strict contractual was found not to apply in an employment situation. In this case the Claimant took a few days to read a letter which had been left in her floor.


2) TUPE Failure to Inform and consult - should 13 weeks be the starting point?

Todd v Care Concern, Appeal No. UKEATS/0057/09/BI

A seller of care home business gave some limited information to employees about impending transfer but failed to arrange for election of “appropriate representatives” as required by reg. 14 of Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 and accordingly gave no information to, and did not consult with, any such representatives.

Underhill P ruled that an award of 13 weeks' pay should NOT be the starting point for failure to inform and consult where the employer has done something (albeit not everything) to comply with the statutory obligations.

In this case, the employer gave some information the transferring employees, but not enough. It also failed to elect employee representatives.