NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Nanyang Business School

BH3301 – Employment Law

Seminar 4 – Common Law Implied Duties (Employee)

Questions
1. Able Company, situated in Tuas, employs D as a driver. The Managing
Director of the Company instructs D to rush immediately to the airport to hand
over a very important set of documents to a much-valued client who is already
in the airport, scheduled to fly off very soon.

Discuss the legal implications of the following scenarios from the perspective
of the employee:

(a) On his way to the airport, D is caught in an unexpected traffic jam. He

objectively assesses the situation and reckons that he will never be able
to make it to the airport in time. He decides not to comply with the
instructions, and drives home instead.
(b) As D enters the car, he notices that the car road tax has expired and,
what is more, the safety belts are not in working order. Consequently,
D refuses to set off and rudely tells the Managing Director (MD) to
“bugger off!”
(c) D informs the MD that he will have to speed along the highway to
make it in time. The MD assures him not to worry about possible
consequences, should the traffic police book him for speeding. In fact,
D is caught for speeding, and his driving licence is suspended. The
company decides to sack him forthwith, arguing that he is of no further
use as a driver to the company.

2. All employees of company ABC Ltd agree in their signed contract of service
to comply with the rules and regulations of the company as set out in the
company handbook entitled "What Every Rookie Employee Should Know to
Survive". The company handbook (not attached to the contract) is given to
every employee on his or her first day at work. The relevant rule in the
company handbook reads:

"No employee is allowed to communicate or disclose to any person any information

gained in the course of his/her employment unless the communication or disclosure
of such information is duly authorised in writing by the company. Any employee in
breach of this condition of service is liable to be summarily dismissed without the
need for proper notice".

P is a senior salesman with the company and has a decade of good service
record. He recently passes on to his sister, who is intending to set up a
company in the same trade, a list of the company's regular clients with details
of quantities ordered and contact persons, and some statistics on consumer
behaviour.

1
 T is a newly appointed confidential secretary to the Managing Director. In a
canteen conversation with a very close friend (from another major
competitor), she discloses to her friend that the company is proposing to
launch a new and much anticipated product at a trade fair over the weekend. T
also confides that the MD often compliments her dress sense and says that she
is “hot!”

In an evening chitchat session with his former classmate, Q, the company’s

accountant, discloses how the company sets about pricing their products and
allocating the costs. Q also moonlights by advising third parties how to
complete and file their income tax returns electronically.

Z, a very senior employee about to retire, sends an email to some of his

colleagues badmouthing the MD as "an unethical boss, spending more time
spreading unfounded rumours about office colleagues and their private lives
than caring about the welfare of employees in the workplace!" Interestingly,
Z’s bold allegations of the MD are actually true and most, if not all,
employees feel the same way about him but are more prudent about refraining
from expressing their views.

Advise P, T, Q and Z regarding possible breaches of their implied duties. [The

discussion of whether the employer may have breached any implied duties
will be carried forward to Seminar 5].

3. Would it make a difference to your advice in question 2 if P, T, Q and Z

already left the employ of the company when they acted as they did above?

© Assoc Prof Dennis Ong

Feb 2020