Working abroad - Unfair dismissal in the UK?

Are you going to be working abroad?
Are you going to be sending an employee to work abroad?
This can raise may legal questions?
One question should be whether these individuals retain the right to claim unfair dismissal in the UK.

Recently (in 2 cases) the courts have referred to the priciples laid down by the House of Lords in the Lawson vs Serco case (2006 IRLR 289 HL), which divide employees into the following categories of cases:

standard - employees who ordinarily work in Great Britain can claim unfair dismissal if they were working in this country at the time of their dismissal.

peripatetic - employees who work in different locations abroad can only claim unfair dismissal in Britain if they are based in this country. The decisive factor in determining the base will be where the employees headquarters are or where the employees travel begins and ends.

expatriate - employees who both work and are based abroad can bring a claim here only in exceptional circumstances. They might be able to bring such claims if they work in an extra-territorial enclave, or were posted abroad for a business carried on in Britain, or have 'equally strong' connections here.
This information is an extract from an article written by Barry Mordsley and James Davis from Salans.

One of the many things you need to know when sending employees to live and work overseas.

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