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You Should Have Said...
What happens if your employees do something which loses them important employment rights? Can they rely on their rights anyway? Can they sue you for not telling them about their rights? There have been a couple of recent cases in the Court of Appeal that have looked at this issue.
In the first case, a worker took early retirement because of a disability, but actually resigned from the job. This meant that the company's insurer did not have to pay the disability benefit. The employer knew this, but had not pointed out to the employee that it would be a disaster to resign. The Court held that there was no duty on the employer to volunteer such advice - if the employee didn't ask, the employer didn't have to tell.
In a different case, a policeman switched from one force to another, and asked for advice from the personnel department. They allowed a three-week break between ending one job and starting the next, which broke continuity of service and lost entitlement to a monthly housing allowance. In this case, the employer was liable for the negligent advice, because the employee had asked for it, it had been given, and it had actually been relied on.
The first decision seems a bit hard on the employee, but at least you can't be expected to think of everything that your workers might need to know. On the other hand, if they ask questions, you have to try to give them the right answers.
| The two cases are Crossley v Faithful & Gould Holdings Ltd (2004)
(ECWA Civ.293) and Metropolitan Police Commissioner v Lennon (2004)
(ECWA Civ.130). |
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