The case law in the last month has demonstrated a current approach to the statutory procedures that seems to vary from the weariedly explanatory to the downright exasperated.
The Department of Trade and Industry has announced a review of these ‘rebarbative’ (© Mr Justice Underhill) procedures. Apparently the Law Society has come straight out for complete repeal. Certain of Her Majesty’s justices may not be far behind them at the barricades. However, before looking at the latest pronouncements on this, it is worth considering two potentially important cases for practitioners on an employee’s implied duty to take on different work in an emergency—with the twist that this emergency was the employee’s own sickness—and on instances where an employee may not be able to bring a statutory action for deductions from wages.
IMPLIED OBLIGATION TO DO OTHER WORK
The old case of Millbrook Furnishing Industries Ltd v McIntosh [1981] IRLR 309 is authority that there may be an implied term that employees will undertake duties outside their contracts if:
(i) the work is suitable;
(ii) the employee suffers no disadvantage in terms of contractual benefits
