Background
On 22 February 2011, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in the long running team move case, Tullett Prebon Plc v BGC Brokers LP, in which the London McDermott Employment Team acted.
Facts
In March 2010, Mr Justice Jack in the High Court found that BGC’s recruitment of ten brokers from Tullett Prebon had been unlawful. BGC appealed against certain aspects of that decision including the Court’s findings:
• that the brokers had not been constructively dismissed by Tullett (in circumstances where Tullett sought to persuade them to comply with their contracts by calling them into meetings at which Tullett made clear what the consequences would be if the brokers did not comply with their contracts); and
• that three target brokers (the “Tullett 3”) (who had signed forward start contracts to join BGC) were entitled to change their minds because, acting as it had, during the recruitment process, BGC had breached the implied term of trust and confidence in forward contracts. BGC argued that it was not in fact under any duty of trust and confidence, as the Tullett 3 had not yet commenced work under the forward contracts.
Decision
The Court of Appeal rejected BGC’s appeal and held that...
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