In this month’s employment brief, Ian Smith breaks new ground courtesy of the Court of Appeal & navigates some tricky traps for unwary employees
- Determining employment status and the relevance of the parties’ categorisation.
- What is the effective date of termination of a dismissal?
- The duty on the employer to indemnify the employee.
The three cases considered below fall into two distinct categories. The first and second concern well-established areas of law (employment status and the effective date of termination for statutory purposes) but are of interest for showing the practical application of existing rules, with the second in particular showing a trap for an unwary employee. However, the third case arguably breaks new ground. It concerns one of those areas in employment law—here the implied duty on the employer to indemnify the employee for costs and expenses incurred in the course of employment—where we all think we know what the law is, but if pushed would find it difficult to give precise authority for it.
