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Article taken from The Barnsley Property and Living Guide July 2007
by Marika Portelli-Field of Mills Kemp & Brown |
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Prestigious Award for Employment
Team Taken from
www.thelawyer.com |

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Mills Kemp
& Brown are delighted to have been awarded 2nd place at The Lawyer Awards
2006 in the 'Employment Team of the Year' category.
The Lawyer Awards is
a focal point in the legal calendar, and with 1,500 attendees it's the biggest
event for lawyers in Europe. Every year they come to toast the achievements of
the profession's elite.
The Lawyer receives hundreds of entries every
year, supplemented by the editorial team's own research. The journalists
whittled down hundreds of submissions to a long list, which was scrutinised by
the judges. Then, after much discussion and due diligence, they voted on the
winners. Because of the high standard of the entries, this was a very difficult
task.
Employment Team of the Year Sponsored by Badenoch &
Clark
2nd - Mills Kemp & Brown
Barnsley firm Mills
Kemp & Brown was brought in to act pro bono for Serco employee Stephen
Lawson as he challenged his dismissal from his job on Ascension Island. Partner
Jonathan Brain managed the case all the way to the House of Lords, instructing
Cloisters Chambers' Jacques Algazy - also on a pro bono basis.
The case
was referred to Brain after Lawson was denied legal aid at the employment
tribunal stage. Lawson claimed that although he was employed in a foreign
jurisdiction, he was covered by UK employment laws.
Victory in the
employment appeals tribunal was followed by defeat in the Court of Appeal, but
in January 2006 the House of Lords handed down a landmark decision in favour of
Lawson. The decision will shape employees' rights for some time to come.
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Unanimous Decision Wins Landmark
Case Written by Jonathan
Brain |
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Mills Kemp
& Brown are delighted to have won a landmark case which has far reaching
implications for overseas workers.
Partner Jonathan Brain took the case
of Stephen Lawson to the House of Lords on a pro bono (unpaid) basis because he
believed in its importance. Stephen Lawson, 53,of Ward Green, Barnsley, a
security officer formerly employed on Ascension Island by Serco Ltd, a UK
registered company with a Middlesex head office, claimed unfair dismissal on
the basis that his health and safety were put in peril by being asked to work
excessively long hours. |
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In a judgement
handed down from the House of Lords this month, a unanimous decision was made
in Mr Lawson's favour. Jonathan Brain commented; "We are delighted with this
result. Following the outcome of Mr Lawson's appeal, practitioners and the
judiciary now have a definitive answer. People with strong British connections
ordinarily working outside Great Britain for employers based in Great Britain
are entitled to have unfair dismissal claims heard in the Employment Tribunal
under English Law. This was previously an uncertain and potentially unfair
area."
Counsel for Lawson instructed in the case, Jacques Algazy and
Paul Spencer of Cloisters Chambers, London, were also acting on a pro bono
basis. Lord Hoffman chaired the appeal which was also heard by Lord Woolf, Lord
Rodger, Lord Walker and Baroness Hale. Watford Employment Tribunal had
previously ruled that it had no jurisdiction to hear the claim as he was
employed to work outside of England and Wales even though he was working for a
British based employer.
Ascension Island is in the south Atlantic and
is governed not by English law but by the law of St Helena. The importance of
the case, which was heard in the House of Lords in November last year, is
underlined by the fact that lawyers for the Foreign and Commonwealth office
were given permission to take part in the appeal due to concerns on the part of
the government of the possible implications of the House of Lords conferring
unfair dismissal rights upon those employed overseas.
Stephen Lawson
was first interviewed in the UK for the post of security officer and worked for
Serco on Ascension Island from September 22, 2000 until he resigned from his
post on April 6, 2001. He brought a claim for unfair constructive dismissal in
the Employment Tribunal. Having less than 12 months service, Mr Lawson would
not normally have been able to bring such a claim, however, health and safety
claims and claims involving a breach of the Working Time Regulations 1998 are
amongst the exceptions to this rule.
The Working Time Regulations 1998
provide that a worker can not be made to work more than 48 hours a week unless
the worker agrees in writing. Mr Lawson represented himself at the Watford
Employment Tribunal. After this he received advice from us and an appeal was
brought in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). The Employment Tribunal's
decision was overruled on 11 March 2003. This was not the end of the story
however as Serco Ltd appealed to the Court of Appeal which overruled the
decision of EAT on the basis unfair dismissal can only be claimed in an
Employment Tribunal in relation to employment in Great Britain. Following this
decision, Mr Lawson's appeal was brought before the House of Lords.
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