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11 November 2020 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7910 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Employment law brief: 13 November 2020

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After a quiet few weeks, Ian Smith breaks the silence & tackles a Polkey reduction & the meaning of ‘because of’...

In brief

  • Constructive dismissal; communicating by conduct.
  • ACAS uplift not applicable to whistleblowing cases.
  • Applying a Polkey reduction to loss of statutory rights.
  • Causation in discrimination cases—the meaning of ‘because of’.

Things on the employment law front have been rather quiet for the last few weeks. At the time of writing we are still awaiting the publication of two Supreme Court decisions (already heard) of major importance, namely in the Uber litigation on employment/worker status in gig economy cases and the Royal Mencap case which will hopefully square the circle on when the national minimum wage applies to on-call/living in carers. Both have economic implications beyond their purely legal significance. In the meantime, we have had three EAT cases reported last month on communicating acceptance of employer repudiation by conduct, applying a Polkey (Polkey v A E Dayton Services Ltd [1987] 3 All ER 974)

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Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
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A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
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