Employment

In proceedings concerning an employee of a US military base in the UK, the employer argued that the provisions of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 did not apply to the case of workers employed by any public administrative body and establishment governed by public law (PAB) within the meaning of Art 1.2 of Council Directive (EC) 98/59 (on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to collective redundancies). The court held that, in transposing the Directive into domestic legislation, the draftsman had made what had to have been a deliberate choice not to reproduce in terms the general exclusion contained in the Directive for PAB workers. Instead, an exclusion had been made for “Crown employment”. It was clear that the concept of a PAB in Community law was wider than Crown employment. That had to have been apparent to the draftsman and there was no warrant for assuming that he nonetheless had intended, but incompetently