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Employment law brief: 21 April 2023

21 April 2023 / Ian Smith
Issue: 8021 / Categories: Features , Employment , Tribunals , Discrimination , Damages
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On the clock: in this month’s employment brief, Ian Smith discusses judges acting up, bonus bonanzas & failures to mitigate
  • Who is a part-time worker?
  • When is a discretionary bonus properly payable?
  • How should the doctrine of mitigation of damage be applied in discrimination cases?

The beginning of April saw the usual annual uprating of the employment protection remedies amounts (against the backdrop of a high retail price index increase of 12%), the social security benefit rates and the national living and minimum wage figures. In addition, new presidential guidance has increased the Vento bands for compensation for injury to feelings. These changes and the specific dates for their commencements are set out in Harvey Bulletin 537. Of particular interest in the last month’s case law are three Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decisions addressing three particular questions:

1. Who is a part-time worker?

2. When is a discretionary bonus properly payable?

3. How should the doctrine of mitigation of damage be applied in discrimination cases?

These

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Red Lion Chambers—Maurice MacSweeney

Red Lion Chambers—Maurice MacSweeney

Set creates new client and business development role amid growth

Kingsley Napley—Tim Lowles

Kingsley Napley—Tim Lowles

Sports disputes practice launchedwith partner appointment

mfg Solicitors—Tom Evans

mfg Solicitors—Tom Evans

Tax and succession planning offering expands with returning partner

NEWS
The rank of King’s Counsel (KC) has been awarded to 96 barristers, and no solicitors, in the latest silk round
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Comparators remain the fault line of discrimination law. In this week's NLJ, Anjali Malik, partner at Bellevue Law, and Mukhtiar Singh, barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, review a bumper year of appellate guidance clarifying how tribunals should approach ‘actual’ and ‘evidential’ comparators. A new six-stage framework stresses a simple starting point: identify the treatment first
In cross-border divorces, domicile can decide everything. In NLJ this week, Jennifer Headon, legal director and head of international family, Isobel Inkley, solicitor, and Fiona Collins, trainee solicitor, all at Birketts LLP, unpack a Court of Appeal ruling that re-centres nuance in jurisdiction disputes. The court held that once a domicile of choice is established, the burden lies on the party asserting its loss
Early determination is no longer a novelty in arbitration. In NLJ this week, Gustavo Moser, arbitration specialist lawyer at Lexis+, charts the global embrace of summary disposal powers, now embedded in the Arbitration Act 1996 and mirrored worldwide. Tribunals may swiftly dismiss claims with ‘no real prospect of succeeding’, but only if fairness is preserved
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