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11 March 2022 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7970 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Employment law brief: 11 March 2022

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Remembrance of things past: Ian Smith reflects on echoes from the past & unravels some current employment conundrums
  • Agency workers and the right to be notified of vacancies.
  • Fire and rehire, but could the contract term be changed at all?
  • Rolling forward pay for statutory holidays actually taken.

In the long-lost days of the Wilson government in the 1970s (which was often concerned with seeking pay accords with the unions), employment law was bestrode by the ubiquitous character, Solomon Binding. He, or his application to ‘solemn and binding agreements’ contained in collective bargains, rapidly went out of fashion in the 1980s, but the second case considered here has a curious echo of this—with an employer actually being held to an agreement made with its staff that a new benefit was meant to be binding into the future. Moreover, this was done in a common law action in the High Court, not in employment tribunal proceedings. As Brian Blessed might boom: ‘Solomon’s alive!’

The other two cases are Court of

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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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