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The unbelievable truth

13 November 2008
Issue: 7345 / Categories: Opinion , Employment
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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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NEWS
One in five in-house lawyers suffer ‘high’ or ‘severe’ work-related stress, according to a report by global legal body, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)
The Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO’s) plea for a budget increase has been rejected by the Law Society and accepted only ‘with reluctance’ by conveyancers
Overcrowded prisons, mental health hospitals and immigration centres are failing to meet international and domestic human rights standards, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) has warned
Two speedier and more streamlined qualification routes have been launched for probate and conveyancing professionals
Workplace stress was a contributing factor in almost one in eight cases before the employment tribunal last year, indicating its endemic grip on the UK workplace
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