Topic 4: Wages and Working Time COPY Flashcards
What happens if there is no contractual term of sick pay in contract?
Employees can fall back on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if there is no contractual term.
SSP is paid for each ‘day of incapacity’ during a period of at least four consecutive days of incapacity (including days not normally worked). Entitlement period lasts up to 28 weeks – the employee then transfers to social security benefits. SSP is currently £92.05pw.
different types of pay for airline pilots - Paid annual leave - workers are entitled to their ‘normal remuneration’ when on leave:
British airways pilots whose wages were split: fixed wage, a supplementary hourly rate for time spent flying and a supplement for time spent away from base. If they were flying transatlantic, and fly back a day later, they got this supplement. BA were only paying them when they were on annual leave their fixed wage, they did not get the supplements. CJEU found the entitlement to normal remuneration during annual leave includes all payment “intrinsically linked to the performance contractual task”.
payments for airline payments while they fly was part of normal remuneration so this was part of the normal remuneration so should receive normal supplement but not “ancillary” payments arising at the time when performing their ordinary task such as time spent away from their base.
- What is intrinsic will be left to the national courts (ET) on a case to case basis.
- Calculation is the average over the reference period. In some weeks there are more or less flights, this will be averaged out over the year and payment should be the average over the year
British Airways v Williams (No 2)
SC
Schulte
15 months after end of leave year not precluded but time period can be limited when there is no longer a health and safety justification for the leave – suggested maximum carry over period of 18 months
CJEU took view that 15 months was not precluded (After end of leave) but max carry over period of 18 months (2 and a half years of sickness and contract still in forced, employer not been terminated, there is still entitlement) argument: that the employee is so detached
Crawford v Network Rail Infrastructure
cannot add up shorter breaks (e.g. two ten minute breaks)
where two ten minute breaks offered separately was not sufficient, must be the 20 minutes. 20 minute separation, e.g. 2 x 10 minute breaks are not enough to protect employee.
- A public body may investigate employees to see if they are complying with the NMW.
- If they are not, the HMRC may take legal action to compel them to do so, and to secure payment of arrears to the affected workers. A deliberate failure to pay the NMW is a criminal offence and may leave to prosecution.
Enforcement for breaching NMW
El-Hajjali
clause requiring newly hired worker with highly specialist skills to make a payment to the company if they failed to start work. Penalty clause if you failed to start work. Held: lawful because In this situation highly skill/specialised, difficult to recruit someone and agreement pre estimated employers losses in this situation. This does not happen often.
leave had to be taken on a Saturday (six days a week short-term contract) – rule upheld
The leave had to be taken on a Saturday. Worker has a 6 day a week short term contract leave must be taken on Saturday. Rule is upheld – inflexible but if leave taken on a Saturday it would still be counted as a normal working day.
Sumsion v BBC
Gomes v Higher Level Care
No compensation for injury to feelings
it will mainly be for financial loss (paid annual leave, more difficult for rest period.
NOTE: The minimum period of paid annual leave is four weeks under the Directive (reg 13) but in the UK bank or public holidays are in addition to this entitlement – an extra 1.6 weeks (reg 13A). The statutory entitlement is therefore a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave for those working a standard five day week = 28 days (pro-rata for those working part-time or casually)
How much annual leave is one entitled to?
Normal remuneration: may include commission if part of contractual pay.
Significant proportion 60% of income of British gas fitters was commission. However, British gas only paid their basic salary when they were on annual leave. Thus 60% was not paid. ET found: if it is part of the normal remuneration they should be paid. Went to CJEU (case below.
Lock v British Gas
No compensation for injury to feelings
it will mainly be for financial loss (paid annual leave, more difficult for rest period.
Gomes v Higher Level Care
In each case the measures applied must ensure that the workers concerned are afforded ‘an equivalent period of compensatory rest’ and in ‘exceptional cases’ when it is not possible for ‘objective reasons’ to grant such rest, workers must be afforded ‘such protection as may be appropriate’ to safeguard their health and safety.
Commission v UK
SIMAP
CJEU strong approach to “on call” cases
If the worker was required to be at the employer’s premises during “on call” time, he or she was “working for working time purposes. This was affired in Jaeger, even though in that case, the worker was provided with somewhere the sleep when not required to work.
CJEU: GPs at health clinic, they were on call when they were at home but could carry out normal activities, but they could be called and once called they had to go to clinic. Only when they were actually called and required to go into clinic was this working time. The rest of the time they had autonomy and were free
Affired SIMAP in this case, even where the worker was provided with somewhere to sleep when not required to work.
doctors at hospital where they were required to rest (and perhaps sleep) and they would be called. Because they were required to be at the work place, at employers disposal, called at any time, this was working hours. This then counted towards 48 hours and this time could not count as rest periods because of absolute division between working time and rest. But established that only 49% of the time on call, they were carrying out their professional activities – strong application of idea of what is working time.
Jaeger
Does the NLW and the NMW and rights under the WTR apply to all workers?
yes
Commission v UK
Derogations apply in respect of this group(unmeasureed or self-determined working time) from all the minimum requirements except paid annual leave.
applies only to workers whose working time ‘as a whole’ is unmeasured or self-determined. Cjeu held: if all of someone’s working time is decided by themselves then they would fall within this category because they choose when to work/when to rest. Any worker who is personally subordinate to employer to these choices, would not normally be covered.
rule that no annual bonus award if at date of payment, the employee is no longer employed by the bank.
Someone could be paid by bank for 9 months of year and then get another job, the would not get bonus for that period that they would be there. He got no bonus, and so claimed there was a breach of contract to not exercise the bank’s discretion irrationally or perversely.
That said, the bank did make substantial bonus awards in 2003 and 2004, and although this was less than Keen had hoped for, it could not be said to have been irrational, arbitrary or perverse, which Keen would have had to show if he wanted to challenge the amount. Moreover, not irrational not to make a payment.
The principle arising from this judgment is that employers do have discretion but this must not be irrationally, perversely or arbitrarily exercised.
Commerzbank v Keen
Barber v RJB Mining
The WTR does not give the worker a remedy in the respect of the 48 hour week. This case filled in the gap.
The workers here refused to sign an opt-out, but the employer insisted that they continue working over the limit. The judge held that the 48 hour limit apparently because of its manadtory language in which it was expressed, was intended by Parliament to be a term in the workers’ contracts. This opened up the posisbility of an injunction to stop the employer from insisting on longer working hours, though the judge refused to grant the injunction because he did not regard it as appropriate.
This is different from equality. READ INTO CONTRACT – unusual.
Once established, it opened up possibility of injunction to stop employer insisting longer working hours.
ET cannot bring injunctions, ET will simply uphold the right and require it to be enforced, so this case might be a civil case. Where a worker is forced to work particulrly long hours to the extent that his or her health is damaged, it may be possible to bring a claim against the employer in tort (outside the WTR), where it can be shown that the employer breached its duty of care towards the worker.
claimant agreed to temporarily work for 4 days a week, they agreed to work mon-Thursday because market conditions had worsened, this would avoid redundancy situation. However, the employer refused to pay them a guarantee payment for the fifth day. They raised this as a grievance. Held: notwithstanding fact they agree to work only 4 days, this did not preclude them from the guaranteed payment because their contract was to work 5 days. Agreement to work 4 days, legitimate to expect that NORMALLY they would be working on a Friday so should receive guarantee pay,
The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal in all three respects. First, during the currency of the Agreement (to work 4 days instead of 5) Fridays remained days on which they were “normally” contractually required to work, and in so far as work was not provided for them on those days they were workless days within the meaning of Part III ERA 1996 in respect of which they were entitled to guarantee payments.
The ERA s28 provides for employees, without protection under their contract, to have a limited right to “fall-back pay” - a ‘guarantee payment’ - for each ‘workless day’. The current rate is £28 per day – but only for a maximum of five days – so £140 - in any three-month period:
Abercrombie v Aga
Bauer Case C569
At time of Bauer’s death (Worker) he had 25 outstanding days of paid annual leave. His wife was the beneficiary of his estate and asked the employer for a payment in lieu of the 25 days which was refused. German law precluded an allowance in lieu of part of the deceased estate (not apply in UK).
CJEU: this German law which prevented this being part of the estate. Was contrary to art 31(2) of charter. national court had a duty to disapply the decision in the particular case but also found that the right was so fundamental that in the context of the right under EU law, it was horizontally directly effective from the charter. Emphasises that this right has been put on the EU system highly.
cannot add up shorter breaks (e.g. two ten minute breaks)
where two ten minute breaks offered separately was not sufficient, must be the 20 minutes. 20 minute separation, e.g. 2 x 10 minute breaks are not enough to protect employee.
Crawford v Network Rail Infrastructure
How much deduction should be taken if a worker is on strike but they have a salary?
The modern view is that salaried workers accrue their earnings on a daily basis so a deduction for each part not worked would be appropriate rather than refusing to pay their whole year’s salary
Mears v Safecar
In the absence of an express term (entitling him to sick pay) in the contract it may be possible to imply a term.
employer’s practice well known the practice. = Had parties put their minds to it, they would have agreed and thought it was reasonable for sick pay.
Accomodation can be provided (when this is provided, it can contribute towards the NLW/NMW.
But ONLY ACCOMODATION not heating/lighting
Here £6 was deducted from the NLW for heating and lighting. Found to be unauthorised, could not be deducted from Living wage because it was heating and lighting not accommodation.
accommodation provided by an employer is included but subject to an “offset rate” of £49pw (£7 per day). Offset rate: If an employer charges more than the offset rate, the difference is taken off the worker’s pay which counts for the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage:
Leisure Employment v HM Revenue & Customs