The Tribunal considered the applicability of the 1996 Act to those employed abroad after the repeal of s196: ‘In our view the repeal of section 196 (2) cannot be taken to have had the effect that employees who had or whose employment had a substantial connection with Great Britain should not be entitled to the rights conferred by the ERA and the ability to assert those rights against their employer in the Employment Tribunal. While the Court of Appeal in Paramount did not limit the relevant jurisdiction by a sufficient or a substantial connection test, it achieved that result by treating the presumption as rebutted but the operation of the broad jurisdiction thus arising as limited by a sufficient connection test upon the basis of which the courts would exercise its discretion. In our judgment, it being accepted that the presumption does not apply in full to the applicability of the rights provided by the ERA but that those rights are not to be regarded as provided to the whole world without restriction, the correct analysis in the present case, as the Employment Appeal Tribunal decided in Jackson, is that the presumption is rebutted but that there is an implied restriction of the applicability of the rights provided by the ERA to cases in which there is a sufficient or substantial connection with the United Kingdom and that there is to be found the limit for which the parties and we have been seeking 73. Such a test would involve consideration of all factors surrounding the employment, including the place of employment, the residence of the employer and the employee, and matters of that kind – but not the proper law of a contract (section 204 of the ERA). It will be for Tribunals in individual cases to consider the facts as a whole and weigh them so as to decide whether there was or was not the requisite connection with the United Kingdom.’
Judges:
His Honour Judge Burke QC
Citations:
[2003] UKEAT 0147 – 03 – 2511
Links:
Statutes:
Employment Rights Act 1996 196
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Serco Ltd v Lawson and Foreign and Commonwealth Office CA 23-Jan-2004
The applicant had been employed to provide services to RAF in the Ascension Islands. He alleged constructive dismissal. There was an issue as to whether somebody working in the Ascension Islands was protected by the 1996 Act. The restriction on . .
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 06 December 2022; Ref: scu.191912