The Court of Appeal has handed down an important judgment about collective redundancy consultation where the redundancies are on ships and other vessels outside UK territorial waters. Allowing the employer’s appeal, the Court of Appeal held that (1) each vessel is an ‘establishment’, even if the employer of the seafarers is not the shipowner; and (2) the ‘sufficiently close connection’ test for deciding whether the case comes with the UK law relating to collective consultation must be considered by reference to the connection of the establishment with the UK, not the connection of the individual seafarers. A link to the judgment can be found here.
John Cavanagh KC and Marcus Pilgerstorfer appeared for the employer.
