The claimant had been employed by the defendant. They made him redundant. He claimed and enhanced payment saying that his emloyment was covered by a collective agreement, but when he refused to sign a compromise agreement, the company paid him only the statutory sums. He now appealed against a finding that the entitlement to the enhanced opayment was subject to an implied condition that a compromise agreement would be signed. No previous enhanced payment had been made without such an agreement.
Held: The appeal failed. The practice had predated the collective agreement and was well established. The employee was given a choice. He could take the enhanced terms with a compromise agreement, or if he thought he could improve his result, he could take the matter to court. He was not entitled to do both.
Ward, Leveson, Pitchford LJJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 425, [2011] ICR 880, [2011] IRLR 591
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Duke v Reliance Systems Limited EAT 1982
The EAT was asked whether a policy in regard to a retiring age had been communicated to employees or whether there was evidence of any universal practice to that effect. Browne-Wilkinson J said: ‘[T]here was no evidence that the employers’ policy of . .
Cited – Ravennavi Spa v New Century Shipbuilding Company Ltd CA 7-Feb-2007
Moore Bick LJ considered the interpretation of poorly drafted contracts and said: ‘Unless the dispute concerns a detailed document of a complex nature that can properly be assumed to have been carefully drafted to ensure that its provisions dovetail . .
Cited – Quinn v Calder EAT 1996
Employees sought to establish a contractual right to an enhanced redundancy payment. Lord Coulsfield referred to Duke and said: ‘In a case such as the present, the factors to which Browne-Wilkinson J referred are likely to be among the most . .
Cited – ABN AMRO Management Services Ltd and Another v Hogben EAT 1-Nov-2009
EAT AGE DISCRIMINATION
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Striking-out
Appeal against refusal of Employment Judge to strike out three heads of an age discrimination claim; cross-appeal against striking-out of . .
Cited – Albion Automotive Ltd v G Walker and 21 others EAT 12-Oct-2001
The employees claimed enhanced redundancy payments. The employers said no contractual obligation existed to make any such payments. The employees said that all previous redundancies had been under such terms, and that it had become a term of their . .
Cited – Solectron Scotland Ltd v Roper and others EAT 31-Jul-2003
The court was asked whether, following a TUPE transfer, a contractual term with regard to the making of enhanced redundancy payments had been preserved.
Held: Elias J said: ‘The fundamental question is this: is the employee’s conduct, by . .
Cited – Albion Automotive Ltd v Walker and Others CA 21-Jun-2002
The parties disputed whether there had arisen an implied term in the company’s employment contracts that enhanced redundancy would be paid.
Held: Peter Gibson LJ adopted a multi-factorial approach as to the relevant factors to be taken into . .
Cited – Shirlaw v Southern Foundries (1926) Ltd CA 1939
The court warned against the over-ready application of any principle to justify the implication of terms into a contract. McKinnon LJ set out his ‘officious bystander’ test: ‘If I may quote from an essay which I wrote some years ago, I then said: . .
Cited – Ali v Christian Salvesen Food Services Limited CA 18-Oct-1996
A collective agreement freely and exhaustively negotiated with a Union was not to have an extra term implied. Waite LJ warned that such agreements should be concise and clear, so as to be readily understood by all who are concerned to operate it . .
Cited – Burke v Royal Liverpool University Hospital NHS Trust EAT 13-Feb-1997
Morison J observed that collective agreements should not be examined through the eyes of a lawyer: custom and practice plays a considerable part in the way that these arrangements are made. . .
Cited – Attorney General of Belize and others v Belize Telecom Ltd and Another PC 18-Mar-2009
(Belize) A company had been formed to manage telecommunications in Belize. The parties disputed the interpretation of its articles. Shares had been sold, but the company was structured so as to leave a degree of control with the government. It was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.432724