payments. The Act provides that salaries shall be "considered as accruing from day to day, and shall be apportionable in respect of time accordingly"
The College had made a deduction at 1/260 relying on the fact there were 260 working days in a year. The Supreme Court considered the evidence from the teachers that demonstrated that their work was not limited to time teaching and they regularly performed their duties during evening, weekends and/or days of annual leave. Accordingly it was appropriate to have a deduction of 1/365.
This is a fact specific decision applicable to teachers, however the principle may be applicable to other employees whose days of work are not ascertainable.
With thanks to Daniel Barnett’s employment law bulletin for providing this update.
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BA to appeal High Court ruling on discretionary increases 26 May 2017
British Airways (BA) will appeal a High Court decision which allowed trustees of one of its defined benefit (DB) schemes to grant a 0.2% increase to pensioners.
BA recently lost a landmark trial to block its pension trustees' decision to award a discretionary increase in 2013 following a seven week court battle. Trustees of the Airways Pension Scheme (APS) successfully defended the payment from BA's arguments that the trustees had acted improperly, had acted outside of their powers, and had taken irrelevant considerations into account.
Professional Pensions has now reported that the High Court granted BA permission to apply to appeal to the Court of Appeal, a move that could extend the litigation for at least eighteen months.
The barrister acting for the trustees, Keith Rowley QC, said BA had " made a mountain out of a mole hill ".
The airline is expected to appeal on the grounds that the payment was "benevolent" and contrary to the purpose of the scheme. The paperwork is expected to be filed by 30 June, with a court date then expected in late 2018.
At the hearing BA was also granted an injunction to block trustees from paying the 0.2% increase until the appeal has been heard. However, if BA is unsuccessful at the appeal, BA will be required to pay damages to individual members of the 0.2% increase plus 2% interest above the base rate. The trustees estimated approximately 6,100 members will miss out on the increase because of both the prior litigation and upcoming appeal; 3,800 who have already died, and an estimated 2,300 who will die before the appeal judgement is published.
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Altering contractual job duties without prior consultation and agreement 26 May 2017
A school business manager has successfully won her claim for unfair dismissal after she was demoted to a role carrying out “officey things”.
This case acts as a reminder of the importance of not changing or varying contractual terms without full consultation and agreement from an employee.
The CIPD reports that Zena Dickenson, who managed 15 staff at Easington Lane Primary School in County Durham and controlled a budget of £1.2m, became concerned that the school’s projected income would not be reached because of a funding shortfall, the employment tribunal at North Shields County Court heard. After mentioning to a colleague that this shortfall could result in redundancies, Dickenson, who had worked for the school for 21 years, was suspended from her managerial role in December 2015. According to her suspension letter, the action was taken for discussing her concerns with a colleague, rather than with the senior leadership team.
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