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Managing the credit crunch

29 January 2009 / Jeremy Nixon
Issue: 7354 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Part 3: Jeremy Nixon looks at employee protection when employers go bust

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Hopes that the credit crunch would remain confined to Wall Street have been dashed with the effects now clearly being felt on Main Street. In addition, some of the world's best known names such as Lehman Brothers and Woolworths have been swept away by what has been described as a financial tsunami. As the economic slowdown continues, it is inevitable that many other firms, both large and small, will go to the wall and employees will suffer despite the protections available.

In circumstances where a company goes into administration and employees are dismissed as a result, or where the company's assets are liquidated, staff are able to claim certain sums from the National Insurance Fund (NIF). The payments available are as follows:

      
      ●     arrears of up to eight weeks' wages, meaning unpaid wages or salary, overtime, bonuses and commission, provided that these were contractually payable and that they relate to a specific period of

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
The ex-wife of a Russian billionaire has won her bid to bring her financial relief claim in London, in a unanimous Court of Appeal decision
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