SG & R Valuation Service Co v Boudrais and Ors [electronic resource]

[2008] EWHC 1340 (QB) 12 May 2008. Where an employment bargain conferred the right to work, this was subject to the qualification that an employee had not, as some prior breach of contract, demonstrated that they were not willing to work. An employer had been justified to place employees on garden leave where there had been wrongdoing, despite there being no express contractual power to do so. Claimant (S) sought interim relief requiring defendant employees (B) to serve a period of garden leave. B had resigned and wrongdoing was noticed by S almost immediately, who asked B to take garden leave. B claimed that this was a repudiatory breach of contract and gave resignation with immediate effect, saying that they were not contractually obliged to stay at home for garden leave. Held: original contracts were accepted as being updated by the employee manual when it was updated, even if the manual was not issued with the original contracts and S had reasonable cause to request that B stay at home, as B was guilty of active wrongdoing.