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Employment law brief: 28 June 2024

28 June 2024 / Ian Smith
Issue: 8077 / Categories: Features , Employment , Tribunals
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Next week’s election may result in changes to employment law, but the existing law continues to present novel issues of interpretation, says Ian Smith
  • Case one considers whistleblowing detriment and establishing the reason in an organisation.
  • Case two is about considering alternative employment in a medical incapability case.
  • Case three contains an important point about the liability of employees in a discrimination case.

With much emphasis, as I write, on possible new employment laws after the election, and speculation as to what Labour would do whether within the first 100 days or not (answers please on a postcard to the editor), it is sobering to be reminded that the existing law can still throw up novel issues of interpretation.

The first case considered this month shows this in spades. It concerns the question of how an organisation can fall foul of the law against imposing detriments (other than dismissal) on an employee. Some of this hinges on a legislative change made 11 years ago but only now coming to the

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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
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
A construction defect claim in the Court of Appeal offers a sharp lesson in pleading discipline. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ, Stephen Gold explains how a catastrophically drafted schedule of loss derailed otherwise viable claims. Across the areas explored in this week's column, the message is consistent: clarity, economy and proper pleading matter more than ever
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