John Bowers QC
Education
Mathew Humberstone Comprehensive School
Lincoln College, Oxford
Positions Held
1979-1993: Member of the Committee of the Industrial Law Society
1979-1992: Honorary Legal Advisor at Turnpike Lane Advice Centre
1980-4 Occasional advisor at Camden Law Centre
1980 - Regular Appearances on behalf of the Free Representation Unit for the EAT Advice Scheme & the Disability Discrimination Act Representation Project
1983: Carries out work for the Bar Pro Bono Unit
1993-96: Committee member of the Employment Law Association
2000-2: Chairman of Employment Law Bar Association
2001-2003: Member of Home Office Task Force on Human Rights
2001-7: Former Honorary Legal Adviser Public Concern at Work, the whistleblowers charity
2001-5: Member of Standard Board for England (Regulator of ethical standards in local government)
2003: Honorary Professor, University of Hull
2005: Bencher of Middle Temple
I sit as a chair on Bar Disciplinary Tribunals and was for some years on the Bar Council’s Race Relations Committee.
Sitting
Recorder Midland Circuit;
Former Chair of Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunal Judge (I had to stand down following the decision of the House of Lords in Lawal to the effect that one could not sit in the EAT and practise there as well).
Leading Cases
1) ABP -v- TGWU ( 1989 Dock Strike Injunctions 1989 IRLR 399 HL)
2) Payne -v- Port of London Authority 1994 IRLR 9 CA( Application by 19 shop stewards for dismissal on trade union grounds at the port of Tilbury following abolition of National Dock Labour Scheme - case lasted 198 days ).
3) Luxmore May -v- Messenger May Baverstock ( test of negligence of local auction house in identifying sleeper pictures).
4) McLaren -v- Home Office 1990 IRLR 338 CA ( role of judicial review in employment law ).
5) Whitbread -v- Mills 1988 IRLR 388 EAT ( leading case on role of appeals in unfair dismissal cases )
6) Wright -v- BRB ( interest on personal injury awards )
7) Wood -v- Cunard Lines Ltd 1990 IRLR 281 EAT ( extent of unfair dismissal rights for merchant seamen)
8) Hogg -v- Dover College 1990 ICR 39 EAT ( proper test of dismissal when one contract terminates and another is offered ).
9) Porter -v- Queens Medical Centre 1993 IRLR 486 EAT ( dismissals of doctors following the Allitt Murders )
10) Gale -v- Northern General Hospitals 1994 IRLR 292 CA ( continuity of employment in NHS Trusts )
11) Wilkin & Chapman -v- Collins ( discrimination against transvestites )
12) R -v- Secretary of State for Defence ex p. Smith 1996 IRLR 100 CA and ECtHR ( the gay servicemen cases )
13) Baker -v- Kaye 1997 IRLR 219 HC (duty of care of doctor carrying out pre-employment medicals )
14) Crosville ( Wales Ltd ) -v- Tracey 1993 IRLR 60 HL ( House of Lords decision on industrial action and contributory fault )
15) Chessington World of Adventures -v- Reed 1998 ICR 97 EAT ( transsexuals and sex discrimination ).
16) Rachel Anderson -v- The Professional Footballers' Association ( sex discrimination ).
17) Dolphin v Pensions Ombudsman: first judicial review of a Pensions Ombudsman determination
18) R (Kwik Fit Ltd) v Central Arbitration Committee 2002 IRLR 395; first challenge to Central Arbitration Committee in relation to trade union recognition; Court of Appeal
19) Anisetti -v- Tokyo-Mitsubishi International Plc ( race discrimination on grounds of non Japanese nationality).
20) RMT -v- Connex South East ( acted for Trade Union in injunction concerning strike action ).
21) Dunnachie v Hull CC: (HL decision as to whether an employee may claim for injury to feelings in unfair dismissal claim)
22) Bunce v Postworth (Court of Appeal decision on meaning of employee in context of agency worker)
23) Redfearn v Serco 2006 IRLR 623; CA leading case on meaning of direct discrimination:
24) Blockbuster Entertainment Ltd v James 2006 IRLR 630; CA leading case on striking out in ETs;
25) Celtec v Astley 2006 IRLR 635: HL & ECJ case on meaning of time of transfer in TUPE cases; on remission from ECJ;
26) Gover v Property Care Ltd 2006 EWCA Civ 286: CA case on Polkey reductions in unfair dismissal;
27) Shepherd v N Yorkshire CC 2006 IRLR 190; EAT case on distinction between Sex discrimination and equal pay;
28) Mathews v Kent & Medway Fire Authority: HL first case on part time workers regulations; largest ever ET case involving about 11000 retained firefighters;
29) Leisure Employment Services v HMRC: first EAT case on minimum wage and accommodation offset;
30) Anderson v S Tyneside MBC: effect on equal pay of claimants working in community schools; to be reported:
I also represented the Football Association in 2004 when they were considering the position of Sven Goran Erikson as England manager. I advised on the move of Time Newspapers to Wapping and am presently involved in many equal pay cases in the North East and the Gate Gourmet dispute.
Mediation
I am a CEDR trained mediator & coordinator of the Workplace Mediation Project, a project looking at the use of mediation in sexual harassment cases.
Teaching
I taught part time at the following Oxford Colleges: Christ Church, Lincoln and St Hughs, and at the Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University). I judge moots at Universities.
Publications and Lectures
1. Modern Law of Strikes ( 1987 ) now known as The Law of Industrial Action and Trade Union Recognition (with Michael Duggan; 2005).
2. Atkins Court Forms Volume 38 1986 ( with B A Hepple ), Butterworths, and 1991 1995 and 2003
3. Termination of Employment, 1998, 1991 Second Edition Longmans ( new edition forthcoming ).
4. The Employment Act 1988 ( with S Auerbach ), Blackstone Press.
5. Employment Tribunal Procedure 1987, 1994, 1999 Longmans, Second Edition with D Brown & G Mead: regularly revised. Republished by OUP 2005 as Blackstones Employment Law Practice
6. The Employment Law Manual ( Chapter on Tribunals ) - Sweet & Maxwell.
7. Transfer of Undertakings: The Legal Pitfalls, 1996 Sixth Edition ( with Mr Justice Elias ) - Sweet & Maxwell.
8. Getting a New Job - Consumer Association, 1981.
9. Bowers on Employment Law, Seventh Edition 2004 OUP.
10. Basic Procedure in Courts and Tribunals - Longmans, 1990
11. Textbook on Employment Law - ( with S Honeyball ) Blackstone Seventh Edition 2004
12. Employment Law Update 1991 ( with A Goraj ).
13. Whistleblowing the New Law 1999 ( with J Lewis and J Mitchell; new edition forthcoming )
14. Employment Law and Human Rights ( with J Lewis Sweet and Maxwell 2000 )
I am a part author of Bullen & Leake on Pleadings and have written many articles for the Law Society Gazette, Industrial Law Journal, Solicitors Journal, New Law Journal, Litigation, and European Human Rights Review. I am a frequent lecturer on employment law to solicitors, businessmen and trade unionists. I also often appear on Legal Network Television and occasionally on news programmes. I have also lectured for the Judicial Studies Board on Human Rights.
