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07 November 2019 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7863 / Categories: Features , Employment , Discrimination
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Employment law brief: 7 November 2019

In this month’s employment brief, Ian Smith raises a glass to legal privilege in the face of pub gossip, & the Pandora’s Box opened by the recent whistle-blowing judgment
  • Judges can be ‘workers’.
  • No liability for third-party harassment.
  • Reversing the burden of proof in discrimination cases.

Dangerous places, London pubs. We might have benefited from Christopher Marlowe’s views on this, if he had not been murdered in one. What brought this to mind this month was a Court of Appeal decision (Curless v Shell International Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 1710, [2019] All ER (D) 137 (Oct)) the facts of which occurred in that den of lawyers and other assorted ne’er-do-wells, the Old Bank of England pub near the law courts. The claimant in a case suddenly realised that a gaggle of lawyers just behind him were in fact talking about his case, from the other side. He was being faced with being ‘managed out’ by redundancy, but he thought it was for other, more dubious reasons.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Browne Jacobson—Vicky Tomlinson

Browne Jacobson—Vicky Tomlinson

Browne Jacobson appoints Vicky Tomlinson as Head of Independent Health and Care

DWF—five appointments

DWF—five appointments

DWF further strengthens major injury and casualty offering with new partner and four directors from DAC Beachcroft

Switalskis—Laura Ornsby

Switalskis—Laura Ornsby

Switalskis strengthens Grimsby child care team

NEWS
The Supreme Court has settled a long-running dispute over part-time workers: unfavourable treatment need be a significant or effective cause, not the sole cause
Arbitration may be private, but its confidentiality is no impenetrable shield. Writing in NLJ this week, James Glaysher of Kingsley Napley examines when courts will permit arbitral material to surface in open litigation
The Financial Reporting Council’s revised Audit Enforcement Procedure will alter the balance of power in corporate investigations
A telecoms operator may be able to hold over under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, yet still be unable to secure a renewal: an outcome described as a legal ‘paradox’

Safety fears do not automatically justify shutting an interested person out of a statutory will application

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