Need to Know February 2010 - Employment law update

Welcome to the latest edition of Need to Know...

Can an independent contractor be an employee when he refuses to sign an employment contract?

This was the question the Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") faced in the recent case of Alstom Transport v Tilson. Contrary to the findings of the Employment Tribunal, the EAT held that the answer was no; however, the facts of the case are unusual.

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Use it or lose it – Employees' notice requirements when taking statutory paid holiday

In the recent case of Lyons v Mitie Security Limited the EAT considered the extent to which an employee has the right to take statutory holiday. The key question was whether an employer must give an employee all their statutory holiday within the holiday year, regardless of whether this fits in with the employer's staffing requirements.

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The right to be accompanied by a lawyer to internal disciplinary hearings

Following the Court of Appeal decision in R (G) v Governors of X School (Secretary of State for Children and Schools and Families intervening) it is clear that, where a school governing body is deciding issues of fact that could form the basis of later action by the Independent Safeguarding Authority to ban an employee from working with children, the employee is entitled to have legal representation at the internal disciplinary stage. This stems from the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights.

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Agency workers - implying contracts of employment with end users

In the recent case of Muschett v HM Prison Service the Court of Appeal looked at whether there came a point in the working relationship between an agency worker and an end user where the status of an agency worker became that of an employee.

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