06th September 2010
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Legal updates
- Working Time Directive and other jobs
- When a dismissal is not a redundancy
- Changing contractual terms
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Working Time Directive and other jobs
Havering PCT vs Bidwell
EAT/0479/07/MAA
Key facts
Bidwell was a nurse with the PCT working 37.5 hours per week with them and also working regular shifts at a nursing home for a private company. Her contract with the PCT allowed work for other employers but she was required to advise the PCT and not work excessive hours which would make her unsafe for duty. The PCT undertook no habitual monitoring of Bidwell’s hours with other employers.
On investigation, the PCT discovered that Bidwell had been working an average of 78 – 110 hours per week and on three occasions had worked a continuous period of 27 hours. They dismissed her as they decided that her working pattern could create a risk to patients.
Decision
The Court of Appeal said that dismissal was inappropriate and other sanctions should have been considered but also said that dismissal for a first offence of this type was not necessarily never going to be fair.
Our view
The case reveals the benefit of best practice – a provision requiring employees to tell you about other work and advise you of their hours would have strengthened the PCT’s case in either avoiding the situation it found itself in or in being found to have been more reasonable in the action that hey took.
