Wilson v St Helens Borough Council [1999] 2 AC 52 is a UK labour law case concerning transfers of undertakings, and the job security rights of employees.
Mr Wilson was a teacher whose school had been transferred to St Helens BC.
They continued working for a few months before claiming that the reduced wages were in breach of r 5 (now TUPER 2006 r 4).
Those rights are determined by national law, and there is no general rule of specific performance.
the overriding emphasis in the European Court’s judgment is that the existing rights of employees are to be safeguarded if there is a transfer… But neither the Regulations nor the Directive nor the jurisprudence of the Court create a Community law right to continue in employment which does not exist under national law.So because there is no English law concept of a dismissal being a nullity, the dismissed employees merely got a right to compensation.