Crown employees

Crown employees (those who work for government departments and agencies including civil servants) are entitled to most statutory rights set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996, except for redundancy and collective consultation rights, minimum notice and insolvency payments. Instead they have equivalent or better rights under agreements within their own employment.

Certain categories of Crown employees have, in some circumstances, alternative avenues for pursuing legal claims. For example, if prison officers and the police (including British Transport Police) are dismissed, the remedy lies not through the tribunals but by way of a special complaints body.

They are entitled to be treated no less favourably than they would have been by the employment tribunals, or to be given the reasons why they were not (R v Civil Service Appeal Board ex parte Cunningham [1991] IRLR 297).