UK jurisdiction

Case 1: The facts

Flight attendant Gloria Hunt worked at the Heathrow base of United Airlines (UA), then transferred to Paris. In 2005 she agreed to transfer back to Heathrow, but the transfer did not take effect as she was on long-term sick leave; she remained living in Paris, and – once UA had closed its Paris base – reported to UA’s administrative base in Chicago under the terms of a collective agreement.

Hunt was dismissed in early 2007. The issue on appeal was whether she was entitled to bring an unfair dismissal claim in the UK.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that Hunt was a “peripatetic employee” within the guidance issued by the House of Lords in the case of Lawson v Serco Ltd [2006] UKHL 3 ([2006] IRLR 289). This meant that, to decide whether it had jurisdiction to hear her claim, the tribunal had to decide where she was based when she was dismissed. According to the guidance, it had to consider what actually happened, not what the contractual entitlement was or what might have happened if the facts were different.

Although Hunt would have been based in London had she been working and not off sick at the time of dismissal, she was in fact being managed at Chicago. This, not London, was therefore her base, so she could not bring her claim in the UK.