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Employment law brief: 19 April 2024

19 April 2024 / Ian Smith
Issue: 8067 / Categories: Features , Employment , Disciplinary&grievance procedures
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April is surely the cruellest month for employment lawyers, contends Ian Smith as he wades through a deluge of statutory changes & a trio of cases
  • Sets out this month’s statutory changes, which include the coming into force of the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and the Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024.
  • Discusses in detail three recent cases—two on whistleblowing, and one on applying unfair dismissal in the context of allegations of breakdown of trust and confidence.

When TS Eliot wrote that April is the cruellest month, it is possible that he was not thinking directly of employment lawyers trying to keep up to date with our subject. But he might well have done. This April has seen a continuation of the current avalanche of statutory changes. The first day of the month saw the increases of the national living wage (extended to all those over 21) and the national minimum wages, plus the revocation of the domestic worker exemption, which had caused problems of interpretation. However, that was

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has not done enough to protect the future sustainability of the legal aid market, MPs have warned
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously
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