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13 November 2008
Issue: 7345 / Categories: Opinion , Employment
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The unbelievable truth

Absurd circumstances are a daily occurrence at the coalface of employment law, says Ian Smith

“A worker (admittedly not an employee) who had been investigated for misconduct following a police investigation claimed that he had been victimised because he had blown the whistle on a third party, but before these matters could come to a head he was made redundant under a procedure operating partly on LIFO. Discuss.”

One of the beauties of lecturing employment law is that you do not have to make up daft examples for illustrations or exam questions; they tend to arise naturally. In the fine tradition of academic exaggeration, the above facts did not occur this month in one case, but in four. However, we must never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Redrow Homes: the continuing tale
Readers will recall that the case of Redrow Homes (Yorkshire) Ltd v Wright [2004] IRLR 720, [2004] 3 All ER 98 was one of those that emphasised that the “worker” definition in the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833)

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Stone King—Laura McHugh

Stone King—Laura McHugh

Stone King strengthens Manchester presence with new partner hire

mfg Solicitors—four appointments

mfg Solicitors—four appointments

Sustained growth leads to rapid expansion of law firm’s corporate team

Bermans—James Thornton

Bermans—James Thornton

Bermans bolsters litigation team with senior hire

NEWS
A High Court ruling has sent a jolt through the legal profession after a newly qualified solicitor used an internal AI tool to produce court correspondence containing a fabricated legal citation
A significant data privacy ruling has clarified what counts as valid consent under UK data protection law
Executors may be overlooking billions of pounds in estate assets hidden in forgotten investments and misplaced share certificates
Britain’s booming non-surgical cosmetics market is operating in what some critics describe as a regulatory ‘Wild West’
Family contact disputes are becoming an increasingly prominent feature of Court of Protection litigation
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