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Recent Blog Posts

22/05/2013: The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013
20/05/2013: Enforceability of 12 month non-solicitation restrictive covenant
17/05/2013: Majority of Supreme Court hold that Methodist minister was not an employee
16/05/2013: Court ruling a win against ‘big boys’
14/05/2013: Relocation requirement following grievance about racist comments was not victimisation

Blog Archive

May 2013
22/05/2013: The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013
20/05/2013: Enforceability of 12 month non-solicitation restrictive covenant
17/05/2013: Majority of Supreme Court hold that Methodist minister was not an employee
16/05/2013: Court ruling a win against ‘big boys’
14/05/2013: Relocation requirement following grievance about racist comments was not victimisation
10/05/2013: Queen's Speech 2013: implications for employment law
09/05/2013: Homophobic comments by football club shareholder could shift the burden of proof in discrimination c
07/05/2013: Equality Act covers post-employment victimisation after all
02/05/2013: The free movement of workers
01/05/2013: Employment Tribunal Fees
April 2013
26/04/2013: New employee shareholder employment status finally set to become law
19/04/2013: Court of Appeal Judgment Merck v Sigma Pharmaceuticals
18/04/2013: Government approves new national minimum wage rate of £6.31
15/04/2013: Confidentiality agreement: interpretation
11/04/2013: Territorial Jurisdiction
10/04/2013: Corporate governance: trade union voting and engagement guidelines
04/04/2013: Redundancy situation existed even though replacement for under-performing employee had already been
03/04/2013: New quarterly tribunal statistics published
March 2013
26/03/2013: 70 job losses at defence firm in Gloucestershire
22/03/2013: TUPE: administrator's dismissal of football club employees was not for an ETO reason
20/03/2013: German employee married to British soldier not entitled to bring unfair dismissal claim
18/03/2013: Court of Appeal Dismissal of Baby P social workers following second disciplinary procedure was fair
13/03/2013: Parental leave entitlement increased on 8 March 2013
12/03/2013: Crufts 2013 - Blondie gets Best of Breed
11/03/2013: Equality Act 2010 does not cover post-employment victimisation
08/03/2013: Using assessment centre competency tests as part of redundancy selection process was unreasonable
06/03/2013: ERRB Report Stage amendments approved by Lords
04/03/2013: Tribunal not required to look behind previously issued final warning
February 2013
27/02/2013: Employment Tribunal had been right to reject a Catholic sub-editor's religious harassment claim
25/02/2013: Share buybacks: government response to consultation on implementation of Nuttall review

Sleeping employees not automatically unfairly dismissed for refusing to forego rest break

26 April 2012

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") has upheld a tribunal's decision that two care home night support employees, dismissed for being asleep on duty, were not automatically unfairly dismissed under section 101A of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The EAT acknowledged that the employees had not been granted rest breaks under regulation 12 of the Working Time Regulations 1998. However, the employees had not, within the meaning of section 101A, "refused" either to comply with a requirement imposed in contravention of the WTR 1998 or to forego a right under those regulations. A "refusal" for section 101A purposes must be explicit and cannot be implied by an employee's conduct. (Ajayi and another v Aitch Care Homes (London) Ltd UKEAT/0464/11.)