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26 April 2013 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7557 / Categories: Features
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Book review: The Law of TUPE Transfers

"The coverage of cases like Ward Hadaway will illuminate many a decision & potentially save thousands of pounds"

Author: Charles Wynn-Evans
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199661695
Price: £60

To someone steeped in the classic principles of English law, TUPE is a concept dreamt up by a failed law student while full of illicit hallucinogenic drugs.

Think about it. A transferee finds himself in a binding and onerous contractual relationship with someone he knows nothing about. The transferee might not even have existed at the time the individual was taken on by the transferor. Get it wrong and the transferee can be confronted by unfair dismissal claims from those he never took on (and so, conventionally, never employed). An employee who does not fancy a move can, in the context of material detriment under reg 4(9), bring an unfair dismissal claim against their employer when it is the plans of the transferee to which they object. And so it goes on. So much for hallowed principles such as privity of contract

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Firm awards training contracts to paralegals through internal programme

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Private client disputes specialist joins commercial litigation team

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Cumbria firm appoints new head of residential property

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Family law must shift from conflict-driven litigation to child-centred problem-solving, according to a major new report. Writing in NLJ this week, Caroline Bowden of Anthony Gold outlines findings showing overwhelming support for reform, with 92% agreeing lawyers owe duties to children as well as clients
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