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27 March 2008 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7314 / Categories: Features , Tribunals , Employment
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Employment Law Brief: 28 March 2008

Lapsed warning, redundancy, EU Industrial action

The last month has seen two Court of Appeal decisions on very basic issues of employment law that have been eagerly awaited. The first concerns the hot topic of the employment status (or, more appropriately, lack thereof) of a long-serving agency-supplied worker and the second concerns the status of an expired warning—can it be used for any purpose at all? Ironically, the third case considered here also addresses a nose-to-the grindstone issue for practical employment, but one on which there has been almost no reported case law, namely the legality of the common technique of effecting redundancies by sacking all the relevant staff and making them reapply for the jobs that are left.

Finally (possibly taking our cue from Oscar Wilde’s remark that we are all in the gutter but some of us look up at the stars) we raise our gaze from the squalor of domestic detail to the wonders and sunny uplands of EC Law and see a recent European Court of

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

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
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
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’
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