Employment law brief: 8 December 2023

• Casual workers—Art 11 relevant?
• Partners are not employees of a business engaging the partnership.
• Does use of employer’s internal procedures constitute affirmation of contract?

The key development last month was the awaited decision of the Supreme Court in the Deliveroo case. The decision of the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) that the riders were not workers in domestic law was not being challenged by this stage, reliance being placed instead on Art 11 of the European Convention. However, the result shows that, as in the past, arguments about the application of that article to the specific context of trade union rights can be one step forward and two steps back. The other two cases considered here concern two well-worn employment law conundrums (conundra?)—the legal position of partners and whether use of an employer’s internal procedures by a departing employee can ever be thrown back at them by the respondent employer as constituting affirmation of contract. The former is interesting