Change of workplace

Case 2: The facts

A local council employed special needs teacher Beryl Luke to work part-time at a pupil referral unit called the ACE Centre; she also had a part-time contract at a merit referral unit. She complained of bullying and harassment by the ACE Centre's head teacher, but an independent investigator dismissed all but one of her 33 complaints and proposed an action plan to help her return to work at the centre.

Luke's return was conditional upon her accepting the investigation's findings, which she was not prepared to do; neither was she prepared to consider transferring to any other place of work. Eventually the local council stopped paying her under the ACE contract, and she brought a claim for unlawful deduction of wages.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that, in exceptional circumstances, an employer can require an employee to work temporarily from a different location, as long as there is no drop in salary or status. This was one of those cases.

The EAT noted that the tribunal had found the outcome of the investigation "reasonable", and that Luke had been offered alternatives but had rejected them. She was therefore not ready, willing and able to fulfil her contractual duties and not entitled to payment for them.

Luke v Stoke on Trent City Council UKEAT/0344/06