Employment Landmark Ruling On Emergency Time Off
South West law firm Foot Anstey has won a landmark decision by the Employment Tribunal that clarifies how much time an employee can take off in an emergency and has reversed the trend of increasing workers’ rights.
The Tribunal ruled in the case of Cortest Limited –v- O’Toole that employees are entitled to emergency time off but it is limited to the time it takes to set up appropriate arrangements to deal with the problem and not to convert it into an extended leave of absence
Employment partner Patrick Howarth of south west solicitors Foot Anstey brought the case on behalf of Wiltshire business Cortest Ltd. He challenged a tribunal decision that Cortest acted unlawfully in refusing an employee, Mr O’Toole, a month’s absence when his wife left the family home, leaving him to look after their children.
Employment specialist Mr Howarth said: “This important ruling draws a distinction between leave of absence and emergency time off. Employers now have some parameters when they give their employees time off to deal with emergencies.
“Employees also now know that emergency leave gives them time to deal with the immediate issues of a problem but not with the aftermath over an extended period of time.”
Mr Nick Alexander of Cortest said: Naturally we are delighted to have won our case. We were as flexible as we could be with Mr O’Toole initially allowing him time off and when it became clear that he wanted to be absent for some time, offering to re-employ him when he was able to return to work.
“But for a small business such as ours, where staff work in pairs, it is just not tenable for someone to expect to take such a long time off as it impacts adversely on the company and other employees.”
Cortest which is based just outside Salisbury in Wiltshire, provides lighting repair services to local authorities, where staff work in two person crews.
Published 18/12/2007
