Employment Law in UK Law

Putting the question in the traditional terms of the conflict of laws, what connection between Great Britain and the employment relationship is required to make section 94(1) the appropriate choice of law in deciding whether and in what circumstances an employee can complain that his dismissal was unfair?

The trust and confidence required in the employment relationship can be undermined by an employer, or indeed an employee, in many different ways. The conduct must, of course, impinge on the relationship in the sense that, looked at objectively, it is likely to destroy or seriously damage the degree of trust and confidence the employee is reasonably entitled to have in his employer.

It is therefore clear that the right will only exceptionally cover employees who are working or based abroad. The principle appears to be that the employment must have much stronger connections both with Great Britain and with British employment law than with any other system of law.

Employment by a public authority does not per se inject any element of public law. Nor does the fact that the employee is in a "higher grade" or is an "officer". This only makes it more likely that there will be special statutory restrictions upon dismissal or other underpinning of his employment (see per Lord Reid in Malloch ( supra)). It will be this underpinning and not the seniority which injects the element of public law.

The question of law is whether section 94 (1) applies to this particular employment. The question of fact is whether the connection between the circumstances of the employment and Great Britain and with British employment law was sufficiently strong to enable it to be said that it would be appropriate for the employee to have a claim for unfair dismissal in Great Britain.

Of course, it is important that the Industrial Tribunal should be alert in this area of the law to look at the reality of any obligations. If there is a term that is inherently inconsistent with the existence of a contract of employment, what actually happened from time to time may not be decisive, given the existence of that term.

Implied terms may supplement the express terms of the contract but cannot contradict them. Employment law requires a balancing of the interests of employers and employees, with proper regard not only to the individual dignity and worth of the employees but also to the general economic interest. Their traditional function is to adapt and modernise the common law. But such developments must be consistent with legislative policy as expressed in statutes.