Two recent cases have established that tribunals cannot award compensation for injury to feelings where a worker is prevented from exercising his working time rights, but can do so where he claims detriment for refusal to comply with an instruction in breach of working time rules.
The EAT has ruled that it is possible to award compensation for injury to feelings for a detriment claim for refusing to work shifts which breached working time rules (in this case on night work and daily rest periods). The EAT determined that an award for injury to feelings should be potentially available to all the forms of detriment claim under Part V of ERA 1996; whether an award should be made and, if so, how much will depend on the facts. (South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service v Mansell)
In contrast, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that injury to feelings awards cannot be made in respect of a claim made under the Working Time Regulations for failure to allow employees to exercise their working time rights (Santos Gomes v High Level Care).
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