When does an employee owe fiduciary duties, asks Felicia Epstein
It has become common, in the employment context, to assert the existence of a duty of fidelity distinct from fiduciary duties. As Robert Flannigan pointed out in his article “The [Fiduciary] Duty of Fidelity” ((2008) 124 LQR 274), the duty of fidelity is an invention and “faith, good faith, fidelity and loyalty arguably are too closely associated with conventional fiduciary responsibility to serve usefully as sharp descriptors of other functions”. Perhaps for this reason, it is difficult to distinguish between an employee’s duty of fidelity and any fiduciary duties they may owe. It has been commonly stated that all employees are subject to a duty of fidelity but only those in a position with specific powers and responsibilities have fiduciary duties that would include reporting their own misconduct or that of fellow employees.
Global Risks
In Lonmar Global Risks Ltd v West and others [2011] IRLR 138 the claimant sued Tyser Limited, a competitor in the international intermediary brokering market, and three employees who had left Global Risks to join Tyser.
