16/12/1996

Whent v. Cartledge Ltd

Uncategorized

Employment Appeal Tribunal

Appeal by a group of employees whose contracts of employment were transferred under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981/ 1794 against an industrial tribunal decision that the terms of a collective agreement for determining their pay made between their union and their former employer was also transferred to the new employer, dismissed. The respondent employer contended that the appellants' pay must still be fixed at the level it was at immediately before the transfer.

HELD: Notwithstanding the fact that the employer had withdrawn from the agreement machinery, the employer was bound to increase the appellants' pay in accordance with the collective agreement because the terms from that agreement had been incorporated into the appellants' contracts of employment. The employer's argument that it could not be bound by an agreement to which it was not a party was flawed. Appeal allowed.

[1997] IRLR 153