Remedies for Breach of the Contract of Employment

Abstract

Wallie Nangle was an executive officer in the Lord Chancellor's Department. In November 1989, it was alleged that he had sexually harassed a female colleague. Following an investigation in which the complaint was upheld, Mr. Nangle was transferred to another department with a loss of increments for 12 months. This decision was upheld after an appeal to the permanent secretary in the department, though the loss of increments was reduced from 12 to three months. Alleging that these decisions had been taken in breach of the rules of natural justice and with procedural impropriety Nangle sought judicial review. But the application failed, with the Divisional Court holding that despite his status as a civil servant, the plaintiff was engaged under a contract of service and that he should seek relief in contract rather than public law to remedy any loss which he had suffered.1 The question which arose in this case was precisely what remedies could Nangle secure in private law? He might recover damages for any loss of increments if the employer had in fact failed to comply with the terms of the disciplinary code. But it is difficult to see what contractual remedy would have been available at the time against the Crown to restrain a disciplinary transfer on the ground that the disciplinary proceedings were conducted in breach of the rules of natural justice, that is to say in breach of rules applying more usually in public law which the courts have shown little desire to apply in the context of employment.