Topic 4: Wages and Working Time COPY COPY Flashcards
(91 cards)
Howman
In the absence of an express term (entitling him to sick pay) in the contract it may be possible to imply a term.
custom of the industry was that there was sick pay, so sufficient applying custom and practise approach.
Bollacke v Klass
death does not extinguish outstanding paid annual leave entitlement.
Upon death of the worker, any unpaid leave will be outstanding and will go to estate of worker.
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.
Julio v Jose
The NMW will not apply where an individual is a voluntary worker
case involving domestic worker who were living in house of family, provided meals, socialised with family and also did a few chores around the house which they shares with family. Were they family workers even though they were living in the house and not member of the family? Held: they were family member because they shared chores and socialised with family. Held: not entitled to NMW
Miles v Linkage
employer must have refused permission to exercise the right. Compensation refused unless employer requested it and it was refused.
What happens if an employer does not pay the NLW/NMW?
An employer who has been found to have underpaid must pay any arrears in full at current NLW/NMW rates and can be ordered to pay a penalty - maximum is £20,000 per worker.
Statutory enforcement is the responsibility of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
BECTU v Secretary of State
CJEU CASE
Scope of the ‘entitlement’ to paid annual leave:
UK’s 13-week qualifying period (QP) was incompatible with Art 7 of the Directive and therefore invalid (now no QP). The right to a minimum period of paid annual leave is ‘a particularly important principle of [EU] social law’ from which there can be no derogations and implementation must be confined within the limits expressly laid down in the Directive.
Facts:
Hired less than 13 weeks, argument that they should be entitled to a few annual leave pro-rate. CJEU agreed that 13 week qualifying period originally introduced was incompatible to the right for every worker to be paid annual leave, so the UK had to disapply it. The regulations were amended and now if you work on a short contract – still entitled to a certain amount of annual leave pro-rata.
CJEU:
Although art 7(1) WTD gives a role to national law in determining the “condition for entitlement” to paid annual leave, the CJEUhas taken a strict line on this. The UK initially impletmented the right with a 13 week Qualifying period. This was chllenged before the CJEU in which trade unions argued that many members would not be abel to take leave because they had short term contracts. The CJEU upheld the compaint on the basis that conditions for entitlement could nnot be such as to deprive workers of their rights. Since then, UK has adopted a different approach in which workers in their first year of employment accure 1/12th of the annual leave entitlement for each month they work.
Matzak
ECJ held that all periods falling within the definition in Article 2 (same as Reg 2) count as ‘working time’ including periods of inactive time when the worker is at the employer’s disposal at the workplace (includes standby by time within 8 minutes travel time to work in Matzak)– such time is subordinate time not free time. It followed that rest periods have to be provided separately from ‘working time
In Hopkins case, they were not entitled to NMW when they weren’t active, but this time was found to count towards their national weekly time.
Delaney v Staples
Protection in retail
The claimant had been dismissed but had been given no payment in lieu of notice. She claimed to the Industrial Tribunal that this was an unlawful deduction from her wages
A payment in lieu of notice arose from the termination of the employment contract not from a request for payment for services done, rather than to the provision of services by the employee, and were not ‘wages’.
Held: payment in lieu where someone summarily dismissed is not wages. Necessary to show summarily dismissal was breach of contract and then this would be wages.
British Nursing Association v IRC
[2002]
Treated “on call” time as time work and required the employer to pay the NMW for each hour spent “on call”.
nurses working from home dealing with ‘phone enquiries, required to answer the phones all night, but between calls were free to do as they chose. Held: they were engaged in timed work and therefore they should receive the NMW.
What is the working time for which the NLW/NMW must be paid
- Time work
- work paid for by reference to the number of hours worked (even if they vary) – so, typically where a worker receives an amount for each hour worked - includes any time available for work (on-call workers) but not rest breaks.
- Salaried hours work
- work paid for by annual salary regardless of the actual hours worked, usually paid weekly or monthly. Hours counted by reference to the contract (may have to be paid for excess hours). All time included except: long term sick leave, unpaid leave, and time engaged in industrial action
- Output work
- work paid for by reference to the pieces produced “piece work” – must be translated to an hourly rate.
- Unmeasured work
- does not fall into the other categories – default for workers who do not have fixed hours or required to do work when it is available. Either a “daily average” is agreed between the parties or they must be paid for every hour actually worked
Wakefield
HL
The claimant was a superintendent registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages. His union instructed him not to conduct weddings on Saturdays.
The refusal to conduct marriages on the Saturday was met with deduction of 3/37ths (3 out of number of hours he normally works a week) of his weekly salary.
Held: The deductions were proper. although the registrar did other duties on Saturdays, the employer was entitled to refuse to accept less than full performance. However, as Freedland points out, some of the judges suggested that the employer might have been entitled to refuse to pay him any of his monthly salary. This suggestion gained track in Wiluszynski.
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
FNV v The Netherlands
Payment in lieu = contract comes to an end and worker has not taken all their leave, they should get a lump sum at the end at termination.
King v The Sash
and
Dollar v King
If refused to pay for annual leave, worker entitled to back pay
Back pay entitlement if the worker is refused pay for annual leave?Yes - if the worker has not taken annual leave because the employer refused to pay for that leave, the worker is entitled to pay in lieu for the minimum statutory period of annual leave for the whole period of the contract – entitled to go back to 1 June 1999
established that King was a worker and he had been working from 1999 to 2012. In this period, in some years he took no annual leave at all in other years he took annual leave but he had not been paid for it. Contract was terminated in 2012, was he entitled to 13 years payment in lieu for paid annual leave he had not been provided with. CJEU found: he was because he was entitled to the minimum period of paid annual leave from day 1 of his employment. This had been denied to him by the employer and the court applied art 31 of the charter – right for every worker.
Sumsion v BBC
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.
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.
Leisure Employment v HM Revenue & Customs
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:
Bristow v City Petroleum
Retail worker
There must be transparency, so the agreement to deduct must be clear
Transparency clause
Does the NLW and the NMW and rights under the WTR apply to all workers?
yes
Gallagher v Alpha Catering
airline workers who it was found that the length of time required for them to be working fell within derogation “continuity of production. These workers provided services on planes, they were not flying. Found: important of take off times, in busy periods there was a busy period and if required to work longer than 6 hours, they were entitled to compensatory rest. Often rushed of their feet. Specific amount of compensatory rest separate from down time which needed to be clarified. Compensatory rest should be for an equivalent period.
Jaeger
Derogations apply in respect of this group from all the minimum requirements except paid annual leave.
hospital in German where doctors were provided with a restroom and working in emergency department, in some case they were inactive. Argued the derogation applied in relation to reg 20. Held: it could not be used to say they could be working longer than 48 hours and rest rules did not apply to them because they were not “wholly” autonomous. Only small number would fall under this and rely on this.
Enforcement on daily rest/weekly rest etc?
responsibility of Health and Safety Executive to bring prosecutions – criminal and civil enforcement
Gallagher v Alpha
rest break must be for a fixed period in advance of its commencement (At least 20 minutes) and uninterrupted. This is where working day is more than 6 hours. At least after 6 hours there must be 20 minute fixed rest break. There could be another one after.
Facts: the Claimants were employed to deliver food to aircraft at airports, loading and unloading food from the aircraft. Between loadings, they were on down time – not physically working, but required to remain in radio contact with their employers, and at their disposal. Down time in the present case . . cannot be a rest break:
- the worker can use as he pleases the rest break