A recent Supreme Court ruling leaves working Brits abroad on tenterhooks, says Charles Pigott
Last month’s Supreme Court decision in Duncombe v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families [2011] UKSC 14, [2011] All ER (D) 332 (Mar) has dashed hopes for a definitive explanation of how domestic and EU discrimination law combine to cope with cross-border workers.
The extent to which British workers abroad are protected by domestic law was thrown into sharp relief by the repeal of s 196 Employment Rights Act 1996, which defined the territorial scope of Britain’s employment protection legislation. The Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010), which took effect last October, did not replace the similar provisions on territorial scope in the repealed anti-discrimination legislation.
The gap left by the repeal of s 196 has been plugged to some extent by House of Lords’ decision Lawson v Serco [2006] IRLR 289, [2006] 1 All ER 823, but there is no definitive guidance on how to approach the similar problem we now face in relation to claims under EA 2010.
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