Greene v Half Moon Bay Hotel (Antigua & Barbuda)
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe |
| Judgment Date | 02 June 2009 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] UKPC 23 |
| Date | 02 June 2009 |
| Court | Privy Council |
| Docket Number | Appeal No 9 of 2008 |
[2009] UKPC 23
Privy Council
Present at the hearing:-
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers
Lord Scott of Foscote
Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe
Baroness Hale of Richmond
Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury
[Delivered by Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe]
This is an appeal by Mr Alistair Greene from an order of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal made on 29 November 2006 dismissing Mr Greene's appeal from a judgment of the Antigua and Barbuda Industrial Court given on 20 October 2004. The principal ground of appeal is that the Court of Appeal failed to give reasons for dismissing the appeal. Miss Anesta Weekes QC, appearing with Mr Benjimin Burgher for Mr Greene, also relied on two subsidiary grounds of appeal in support, as she put it, of the principal ground. The respondent is a company which was Mr Greene's employer from 1995 until 3 November 1998. Its correct name is HMB Holdings Ltd ("HMBH"), although the name "Half Moon Bay Hotel" appears in all the formal documents used during the litigation. Neither side has taken any point on that.
Mr Greene was first employed at the hotel in 1982. In 1992 the management changed, and Mr Greene was employed by the new management company (which was working for HMBH, the new owner). Under a written contract dated 1 May 1993 he was employed as the hotel's maintenance manager at an annual salary of EC$57, 000 payable by monthly instalments of EC$4,750. He was required to attend during normal hours of business and otherwise as might be necessary for the proper performance of his duties. His monthly salary later went up to EC$5,500.
In September 1995 Hurricane Luis struck Antigua and the hotel was closed. The management company departed and HMBH itself took over management in January 1996. Mr Greene was retained as an employee of HMBH and he and other employees maintained the hotel's buildings, facilities and grounds (the hotel had still not reopened for guests at the time of the Industrial Court hearings). The managing director of HMBH was Mrs Natalia Querard. Her evidence was that (quite apart from the hurricane damage) the hotel's affairs were in financial disarray when HMBH took over. Her son Mr Constantine Querard was also a director of HMBH.
Mrs Querard's evidence, which the Industrial Court accepted, was that Mr Greene was expected to work from 7 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday (making a 40-hour week after allowing an hour a day for breakfast and lunch breaks). But Mr Greene was, she said, a very bad timekeeper, partly because he was building his own house nearby and constantly wanted to be at the site to supervise the building work. During June or July 1998 Mrs Querard told Mr Greene that she was thinking of paying him at an hourly rate (though still by monthly instalments) so that he would get $5,500 a month only if he put in 40-hour weeks. Then in October 1998, when she was away from Antigua, she asked her son to tell Mr Greene that this change was going to be put in effect. On 3 November 1998 Mrs Querard called a meeting of all the staff and indicated how the business was to be run from then on. There were several issues before the Industrial Court as to whether Mrs Querard's requirements were all changes, or whether some were simply reinforcing existing rules which had been eroded (the reorganisation of the workforce into two teams was certainly an innovation). Mr Greene spoke out at this meeting on various topics. There was an issue as to whether he became angry and spoke intemperately. There was a further issue as to whether he was actually dismissed, constructively dismissed, or simply told sarcastically (when he said that he needed a vacation) that "as far as [Mrs Querard] was concerned it could be a permanent vacation." That was the last day that he worked at the hotel.
On 15 December 1999 (after unsuccessful conciliation meetings with the Labour Department) Mr Greene started proceedings in the Industrial Court complaining that he had been unfairly dismissed, actually or constructively, and claiming compensation and arrears of holiday pay. By an amendment he also claimed severance pay. He did not make any other claim in respect of unpaid statutory benefits.
All these matters were gone into over eight days of hearings, at which Mr Greene gave evidence for himself and Mrs Querard, her son and two employees gave evidence for HMBH. Unfortunately the eight days of hearings were not consecutive, but were spread over nearly eighteen months, from September 2001 to March 2003. On 31 August 2004 Mr Greene applied for an order of mandamus requiring the Industrial Court to give judgment. An order of mandamus was made on 8 October 2004. The...
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