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Implied duty to take reasonable care when explaining rights

It is a breach of the implied contractual duty of trust, confidence and good faith to negligently misrepresent a situation, leading employees to take a course of action they would otherwise have rejected. In Hagen v ICI Chemicals [2002] IRLR 31, employees agreed to transfer their employment to a new employer under the Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment Regulations 2006 because they were told their pension rights would be more or less the same. This was not correct and some employees lost out substantially. The High Court said this was a breach of contract and that the employees could sue their old employer for damages.

The duty to inform and to take reasonable care when doing so does not extend to a duty to advise employees of their best choice (University of Nottingham v Eyett [1999] IRLR 87).