Ian Smith considers developments in some well-worn difficult areas of the law
A few years ago Judge Clark started a judgment on redundancy payments by saying that it is odd that important points of interpretation still arise on the legislation here, but commented that on the other hand it has only been in existence since 1965 and one must not expect miracles. The decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) under Langstaff P in the first case considered in this brief shows the truth behind that typically pithy remark because it finally settles a point on lay-offs in redundancy law that has been uncertain since 1984. The second and third cases also concerned well-worn areas of difficulty in individual employment law, namely termination by mutual agreement (negating a “dismissal”) and the circumstances in which the parties can agree to vary what was originally the “effective date of termination” (EDT) of a dismissal. While not actually resolving all the possible conflicts in their areas, these decisions of Judge Eady do show the way the wind
