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28 June 2024 / Ian Smith
Issue: 8077 / Categories: Features , Employment , Tribunals
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Employment law brief: 28 June 2024

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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

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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