Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978

139 Provisions as to House of Commons staff

(1) The provisions of Parts I (so far as it relates to itemised pay statements), II, III (except section 44), V and VIII, and this Part and section 53 shall apply to relevant members of House of Commons staff as they apply to persons in Crown employment within the meaning of section 138 and accordingly for the purposes of the application of those provisions in relation to any such members—

(a) any reference to an employee shall be construed as a reference to any such member;

(b) any reference to a contract of employment shall be construed as including a reference to the terms of employment of any such member ;

(c) any reference to dismissal shall be construed as including a reference to the termination of any such member's employment;

(d) the reference in paragraph 1(5)(c) of Schedule 9 to a person's undertaking or any undertaking in which he works shall be construed as a reference to the national interest or, if the case so requires, the interests of the House of Commons ; and

(e) any other reference to an undertaking shall be construed as a reference to the House of Commons.

(2) Nothing in any rule of law or the law or practice of Parliament shall prevent a relevant member of the House of Commons staff from bringing a civil employment claim before the court or from bringing before an industrial tribunal proceedings of any description which could be brought before such a tribunal by any person who is not such a member.

(3) In this section—

• " relevant member of the House of Commons staff " means—

  (a)

  any person appointed by the House of Commons Commission (in this section referred to as the Commission) or employed in the refreshment department; and

  (b)

  any member of Mr. Speaker's personal staff;

• " civil employment claim " means a claim arising out of or relating to a contract of employment or any other contract connected with employment, or a claim in tort arising in connection with a person's employment; and

• " the court " means the High Court or the county court.

(4) It is hereby declared that for the purposes of the enactments applied by subsection (1) and of Part VI (where applicable to relevant members of House of Commons staff) and for the purposes of any civil employment claim—

(a) the Commission is the employer of staff appointed by the Commission; and

(b) Mr. Speaker is the employer of his personal staff and of any person employed in the refreshment department and not falling within paragraph (a);

but the foregoing provision shall have effect subject to subsection (5).

(5) The Commission or, as the case may be, Mr. Speaker may designate for all or any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (4)—

(a) any description of staff other than Mr. Speaker's personal staff; and

(b) in relation to staff so designated, any person;

and where a person is so designated he, instead of the Commission or Mr. Speaker, shall be deemed for the purposes to which the designation relates to be the employer of the persons in relation to whom he is so designated.

(6) Where any proceedings are brought by virtue of this section against the Commission or Mr. Speaker or any person designated under subsection (5), the person against whom the proceedings are brought may apply to the court or the industrial tribunal, as the case may be, to have some other person against whom the proceedings could at the time of the application be properly brought substituted for him as a party to those proceedings.

(7) For the purposes mentioned in subsection (4) a person's employment in or for the purposes of the House of Commons shall not, provided he continues to be employed in such employment, be treated as terminated by reason only of a change (whether effected before or after the passing of the [1978 c. 36.] House of Commons (Administration) Act 1978, and whether effected by virtue of that Act or otherwise) in his employer and (provided he so continues) his first appointment to such employment shall be deemed after the change to have been made by his employer for the time being, and accordingly—

(a) he shall be treated for the purposes so mentioned as being continuously employed by that employer from the commencement of such employment until its termination; and

(b) anything done by or in relation to his employer for the time being in respect of such employment before the change shall be so treated as having been done by or in relation to the person who is his employer for the time being after the change.

(8) In subsection (7) " employer for the time being", in relation to a person who has ceased to be employed in or for the purposes of the House of Commons, means the person who was his employer immediately before he ceased to be so employed, except that where some other person would have been his employer for the time being if he had not ceased to be so employed, it means that other person.

(9) If the House of Commons resolves at any time that any provision of subsections (3) to (6) should be amended in its application to any member of the staff of that House, Her Majesty may by Order in Council amend that provision accordingly.