Redundancy – duty to consult with overseas employees


Janet Simpson, of Watson Farley & Williams LLP, warns the shipping sector of a new ruling out of the UK with wide scope


In Nautilus International (A Trade Union) v Seahorse Maritime Ltd the UK’s Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has considered, for the first time, the territorial scope of collective consultation duty under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA). The EAT found that a fleet of ships constituted one establishment and that the key question in determining the territorial scope of the collective consultation obligation was whether the employees themselves, rather than the establishment at which they were assigned to work, had sufficiently strong connections to the UK.