Summary Dismissal: Digging for dirt

Gary Freer examines a case in which the employer dismissed a senior manager for misconduct only after actively looking for a pretext to do so ‘The issue to be decided was whether Mr Williams’ conduct amounted to a sufficiently serious breach of the implied duty of trust and confidence to amount to a repudiation of …
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Whistleblowing: Celebrating speaking up

Richard Nicolle discusses the latest proposals aimed at removing cultural barriers to reporting wrongdoing ‘The cultural shift that these reports aim to promote is a welcome one but it will be a lengthy process and, in the meantime, whistleblowers remain wary about raising concerns.’ Over the past year, there has been an increased focus on …
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Employment Regulation: How much is enough?

Tom Kerr-Williams asks whether the UK has too much labour market regulation, too little or whether it is just about right ‘It is very difficult to perform an international comparison of regulation and to reach a conclusion about whether the UK would benefit from more or less.’ Benjamin Disraeli is commonly believed to have said: …
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Collective Redundancy: Hope for employers

Chris Tutton analyses the advocate general’s opinion in the Woolworths case ‘Businesses need to know where they stand and this situation is wholly unsatisfactory, not least because the risk of getting the process wrong can expose them to protective awards running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.’ In 2013, an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision …
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Redundancy: Establishing a place of work

As mobile working grows in popularity, it is not always easy to say where an employee is based, which can cause difficulties on dismissal, explains Julian Yew ‘Where there is a change to an employee’s “base”, this should be clearly documented so that any potential “place of work” redundancies contemplated by employers due to changes …
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Contracts Of Employment: Terms for senior employees merit serious consideration

Sharon Tan and Richard Cook look at the importance of clear documentation for start-up companies following a Court of Appeal decision ‘What is immediately apparent from this decision is the importance of formalising senior employees’ terms at the outset, even in the informal and often hectic world of the start-up company.’In the fast paced world …
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Territorial Jurisdiction: One size doesn’t fit all

The latest decision on employing workers who live overseas shows that there are no easy answers to whether they can bring a claim in the UK employment tribunal, warns Kevin McCavish ‘In Serco, Lord Hoffman was keen to emphasise that a universal test would not work when determining the question of territorial jurisdiction and that …
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