EAT

Subscribe to EAT

The application of UK employment law to employees working outside the UK is a big issue for multi-national companies and employers in the shipping industry. If you have an employee who works for you outside the UK, can you be sure that they are not entitled to UK employment rights?

Not always – and there has been a great deal of case law over the last few years which indicates just that. Some employees working outside the UK may have UK employment rights – international employers should remain aware of that risk to avoid surprise claims.

But which employees will have such rights? A new case this week in the Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") might provide some help in answering that question, at least in relation to employment protection derived from EU law, such as discrimination claims. We take a look at Hasan v Shell International Shipping Services (PTE) Ltd, and consider if this case takes us any further in defining the true scope of UK employment law.Continue Reading “European” employment law applies in Europe only

In Abellio London Ltd (Formerly Travel London Ltd) v Musse and others UKEAT 0283/11 and 0631/11, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) ruled that a relocation of six miles within central London which resulted in the employees having to travel an extra one to two hours to work following a service provision change amounted to a substantial change to employees’ working conditions to their material detriment entitling them to resign under regulation 4(9) of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”). As regulation 4(9) of TUPE deems an employee’s resignation to be a “dismissal” where it is in response to such a change, the employees concerned were entitled to claim automatic unfair dismissal and liability for their dismissals passed to the transferee. Since it would not have mattered had the contracts of employment contained valid mobility clauses, the decision is not good news for transferees in TUPE transfer situations. The decision sets a very low hurdle for employees to overcome in order to be able to resign in reliance on regulation 4(9) of TUPE. Transferees will need to consider the extent of this risk when negotiating transfer provisions with the transferor, and, if necessary, seek indemnity protection.
Continue Reading Service provision changes: Relocation because of TUPE transfer was a substantial change to employees’ material detriment