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08 October 2021 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7951 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Employment law brief: 8 October 2021

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This month, Ian Smith focuses on part-time and zero hours conundrums, and shares a tale of compulsory retirement from the city of dreaming spires
  • Part-timers—the reason for less favourable treatment. Effect of suspension on a zero-hours contract. Asserting statutory rights—a question of timing. Age discrimination justification—you pays your money and takes your choice.

The employment lawyer’s plea/cop-out ‘It’s all a question of fact’ can be seen writ large in the last cases considered here, both against Oxford University by compulsorily retired professors. Before these, there are cases this month on less favourable treatment of part-timers, the effect of a suspension on a person under a zero-hours contract (with the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) going back on a previous but difficult case of its own) and the assertion of statutory rights (with the EAT suggesting a way around what could be a possible limitation on the claimant’s rights here).

Part-timers

The difference between the causation test of ‘but for’ and the motivation test of ‘on the ground that’ may seem to an outsider to be legal sophistry, but the case

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams

Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams

Private wealth and tax team welcomes cross-border specialist as consultant

Freeths—Michelle Kirkland Elias

Freeths—Michelle Kirkland Elias

International hospitality and leisure specialist joins corporate team as partner

Flint Bishop—Deborah Niven

Flint Bishop—Deborah Niven

Firm appoints head of intellectual property to drive northern growth

NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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