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Implied Duties employee notes
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Notes about employee implied duties for employment law
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LLB DLImplied Duties of the Employee
• Duty to obey reasonable and lawful orders
• Morris v Henlys (Folkestone) Ltd [1973] 2 All ER 137 - Employer cannot
order an employee to do something which is illegal.
Ottoman Bank v Chakarian [1930] AC 277 PC - Here the employee was
ordered to stay in Constantinople where he had been under a death
sentence. Found that employee did not have to obey this order.
• Boychuk v Symons Holdings Ltd [1977] IRLR 395 - there has to be
reasonable balance between the employee’s freedom and the employer’s
right to give reasonable orders.
Sometimes the implied duties on employer and employee can appear to
be in conflict. Compare and contrast the next two cases.
• Lewis & Britton v Mason & Sons [1994] IRLR 4 – Employee in breach of
duty to obey reasonable orders.
• Bradford v Robinson Rentals [1967] 1 All ER 267 – Similar facts as Lewis
but employer in breach of implied duty of care in relation to health and
safety.
• Duty to cooperate with the employer
• Secretary of State v. ASLEF (No.2) (1972) – Here a work- to the
employer’s rule book was a breach of an implied duty not to wilfully
obstruct the employer’s business!
• Burgess v Stevedoring Services Ltd [2002] IRLR – Here a ban on
voluntary overtime was not found to be a breach of the duty.
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, • Sim v Rotherham B.C. (1986) Sim refused to cover for absent colleagues
who were on strike. Such an obligation was not an express part of her
contract. Nevertheless, as a teacher she had a professional duty to
cooperate provide cover and her refusal to do so was a breach of implied
duty to cooperate with the employer
• Ticehurst v. British Telecommunications plc [1992] I.R.L.R. 219. During
industrial dispute T, a manger, refused to sign agreement that she would
work normally. Found to be a breach of the implied duty.
• Duty of competence
• Harmer v Cornelius [1858] (1843 - 60) All ER 624 - It is an implied term
in any contract of employment that the employee is reasonably competent
to do her or his job.
• Duty to adapt to new ways of working
• Cresswell v Board of Inland Revenue [1984] IRLR 190 – Mrs. Cresswell
refused to use a computer saying it was not in her contract. The court
said?
• Duty of fidelity (including confidentiality)
• Simon Honeyball makes the observation that this duty is arguably several
duties under a rather vague rubric and that the precise nature of the duty
varies according to status and position of employee.
• Is there a duty here to disclose own wrong doing – Contrast Symbron
Corporationv Rochem Ltd (1983) with Bell v Lever Brothers (1932)
• Hivac Ltd v Park Royal Scientific Instruments Ltd [1946] CH 169 - Five
employees were involved in the assembly of valves for hearing aids and
did the same work for another employer on Sundays. Held to be in breach
of the duty of fidelity because the employees might have divulged trade
secrets whilst working for the other employer (there did not have to be an
actual disclosure)
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