UK: Jurisdiction - claims for EU-derived rights may only be brought in the UK if working within the EU

In Wittenberg v Sunset Personnel Services the EAT has reiterated its view, originally given in Hasan v Shell International (see our blog post), that EU-derived rights such as working time or discrimination protections can be enforced in the UK, despite not satisfying the usual jurisdictional test, only if the individual was working within the EU.

In its view, it was insufficient that the individual was an EU citizen with his home in Germany and subject to a contract governed by 'UK law' with a UK employer, when the work was performed in off shore Nigeria. The EAT considered that EU law is limited in its application to the area of the EU, and rejected arguments that decisions of the European Court of Justice can be viewed as supporting a wider territorial reach based on some other sufficiently strong connection with the EU.