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13 May 2020 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7886 / Categories: Features , Employment , Covid-19
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Employment law brief: 13 May 2020

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As the shutters & umbrellas close at Carluccio’s, Ian Smith reflects on how the current emergency is starting to throw up case law on areas of potential conflict with standard tenets of employment law

In brief

  • Variation of contract and the government furloughing scheme.
  • Re-engagement if not the best candidate for the available job.
  • Duty to make reasonable adjustments and its application to electronic working.

The last month has seen further specific legislation to deal with the coronavirus emergency, in particular amending the rules on statutory sick pay again to deem very vulnerable people in preventive lockdown to be incapable of work and providing that furloughed employees on 80% of earnings can count their previous earnings if claiming statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay, statutory shared parental pay or statutory parental bereavement pay. This emergency is also starting to throw up case law on areas of potential conflict (or at least awkward overlaps) with standard tenets of employment law. The first case here is one such,

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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