The government operated European Schools catering for children of staff of the European Community. The school staff challenged as unlawful, the contracts restricting their terms of employment with the schools to a maximum of nine years.
Held: The Secretary of State’s appeal succeeded. It was objectively justified to employ the teachers on the current fixed term contracts and accordingly that they were not converted into permanent contracts by the operation of regulation 8 of the Fixed-term Regulations. The Directive sought to protect against discrimination, workers on fixed-term contracts and against abuse of successive fixed-term contracts in what was in reality an indefinite employment. That was not this situation, and the defeat of the argument in favour of the nine year rule was not to the point.
Lord Rodger, Lady Hale, Lord Mance, Lord Collins, Lord Clarke
UKSC 2010/0025, [2011] UKSC 14, [2011] ICR 495, [2011] IRLR 498, [2011] 2 All ER 417, [2011] 2 CMLR 51
Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary, Bailii
Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2034), Council Directive 1999/70/EC concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work
England and Wales
Citing:
At EAT – Duncombe and others v Department for Education and Skills EAT 24-Apr-2008
Duncombe_desEAT2008
EAT Jurisdictional Points – Working outside the jurisdiction
Fixed Term Regulations
Extra-territorial jurisdiction. Teachers working abroad. Breach of contract claim within ET jurisdiction. Whether . .
Appeal from – Duncombe and Others v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families CA 14-Dec-2009
The court considered the workings of fixed term employment contracts under which the claimants taught in Europe. The Secretary of State argued that the contracts validly limited the claimants’ employment to nine years. The claimants said the 2002 . .
Cited – Serco Ltd v Lawson; Botham v Ministry of Defence; Crofts and others v Veta Limited HL 26-Jan-2006
Mr Lawson was employed by Serco as a security supervisor at the British RAF base on Ascension Island, which is a dependency of the British Overseas Territory of St Helena. Mr Botham was employed as a youth worker at various Ministry of Defence . .
Cited – Bleuse v MBT Transport Ltd and Another EAT 21-Dec-2007
EAT Working Time Regulations
Unfair Dismissal – Exclusions including worker/jurisdiction
The claimant, a lorry driver, worked mainly in Austria and Germany, but had a contract of employment with a . .
Cited – Aahyan v European Parliament (Staff Regulations) ECJ 30-Apr-2009
ECJ Civil service – Session auxiliaries of the European Parliament – Admissibility – Pre-litigation procedure – Article 283 EC – Article 78 of the Conditions of Employment – Plea of illegality – Equal treatment – . .
Distinguished – Adeneler and Others v Ellinikos Organismos Galaktos ECJ 4-Jul-2006
A Directive was belatedly transposed into national law and after the date by which it ought to have been implemented. The question arose whether the obligation to interpret national law in accordance with the Directive existed from the date the . .
Cited – Yolanda Del Cerro Alonso v Osakidetza (Servicio Vasco de Salud) ECJ 10-Jan-2007
ECJ ETUC-UNICE-CEEP framework agreement Fixed-term work Working conditions Length’of’service allowance Not received due to agreements between staff union and administration Adequate objective grounds.
Cited by:
Cited – Duncombe and Others v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (No 2) SC 15-Jul-2011
The court considered whether a teacher employed by the Secretary of State to teach in one of its European Schools was entitled to protection against unfair dismissal.
Held: The claimants’ appeals were allowed and the cases remitted to the . .
SC Part 1 – Duncombe and Others v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (No 2) SC 15-Jul-2011
The court considered whether a teacher employed by the Secretary of State to teach in one of its European Schools was entitled to protection against unfair dismissal.
Held: The claimants’ appeals were allowed and the cases remitted to the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, European
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.431372