Weekly Issue 437

Travelling time and working time

Workers, who have no fixed place of work, should ensure their employer counts the time they spend travelling to and from customers or clients premises as working time following a European Court of Justice ruling last week in Federacion de Servicios Privados del Sindicato Comisiones Obreras v Tyco Integrated Security SL and anor.

Efficiency cuts

The Equality Act allows employers to discriminate against their employees as long as they can objectively justify it. In Chief Constable of West Midlands Police and ors v Harrod and ors, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that a rule in police pension regulations which effectively allowed forces to retire officers over a certain age could be objectively justified.

Public statements

Employees need to take care when posting comments about work on social media. The Employment Appeal Tribunal held in British Waterways Board v Smith that it was fair to dismiss an employee who made derogatory statements about his employer on Facebook, even though the comments had been posted two years earlier and he could show that his security settings had been switched from private to public.