NLJ this week: EAT rulings redraw key employment law boundaries

Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at the University of East Anglia, highlights a ruling confirming that an employee's motives may, in some cases, help determine whether conduct amounts to repudiatory breach, observing that 'motive may, in an appropriate case, be evidence as to how a reasonable person would react'.

He also examines a bonus dispute where an employer could no longer 'move the goalposts' after entitlement had crystallised, together with decisions on the limits of the separability defence in trade union dismissals and extensions of time for tribunal responses.

Collectively, the judgments reinforce a fact-sensitive approach while placing limits on employer discretion.