ABSTRACT
The legal position for the Crown servant is particularly weak and in the case of military servants there is virtually no legal protection at all. A member of the armed forces cannot resort to the law in order to enforce the provisions of any employment contract with the Crown. As far as the civil servant is concerned, his employer, the Crown, can dismiss him at will (Dunn v R (1896)). Although it has been suggested, even within the last 25 years, that a civil servant does not have an employment contract with the Crown but simply holds an appointment with the Crown, the position in law would not appear to be changing. In the previous chapter, for example, it was seen that decisions of the Civil Service Appeal Board are subject to judicial review. The Board has jurisdiction to hear appeals from civil servants in respect of dismissal notices, among other employment matters. Nevertheless, the court in Bruce confirmed that no contract exists between the Crown and its civil servant, simply because there is no intention to create legal relations on the evidence of the Civil Service Code of Pay and Conditions. However, there is deemed to be a contract of employment here by the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 s 245. Without a deemed contract the civil service unions are not obliged to hold a strike ballot for the purposes of the 1992 Act and cannot be liable in tort for inducing breaches of contract. Although it remains the case that a civil servant cannot sue the Crown for ‘wrongful’ dismissal in breach of contract, there exists in the Civil Service a large number of voluntary employment agreements, many of which
are negotiated and concluded with the trade unions. In addition, a good deal of legal protection has emerged from recent employment legislation. Perhaps the best example relates to the provisions of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 among which is the statutory right of an employee not to be dismissed unfairly. The Act of 1978 indicates that this part of the Act applies to the Crown, together with other parts such as those relating to maternity rights for women.
