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Book review: Smith & Wood's Employment Law (14th Edition)

09 July 2019 / Dominic Regan
Categories: Features , Employment , TUPE
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“Smith gives us the panoramic view, seamlessly welding together old authorities with developments up to the end of February 2019”
  • Authors: Ian Smith, Aaron Baker & Owen Warnock
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 978-0198824893
  • RRP: £37.99

Employment law ‘…is certainly one of the most difficult areas of law in which to keep up to date.’ The first sentence of this fine work is indisputably accurate. I cannot suggest any area of law which is so fickle and prone to protracted contortions.

The most fundamental issues remain elusive. Who counts as a worker? Is someone required to be on the premises, at a care home for example, entitled to receive the minimum wage even when they are tucked up and fast asleep? Both of these problems are awaiting determination by the Supreme Court. Imagine if we didn’t know what a contract was, or to whom a tortious duty was owed.

The law of master & servant

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