Ian Smith sees out the year with some hybrid perennials
Although the four cases chosen for commentary this month are on quite disparate subjects, they do have a unifying link, in that they show either the continued vitality of the common law in employment issues or the liability of such employment issues to attract the intervention of other areas of law, or both.
The first two concern the perennial question of employment status, here as it affects two “atypicals”, namely fixed-share partners and longstanding agency workers. The third case arose in the highly topical litigation between BA and the union representing its cabin crew, but involved a question as old as employment law—when does a provision of a collective agreement become part of an individual’s contract of employment (and so enforceable contractually). The fourth concerns the application to employment law of a statute never intended for such use (the Protection from Harassment Act 1997) in a high-profile case concerning police employment, the judgment in which contains one particular ruling which will be viewed by claimants’ lawyers as regressive.
Partner status
The
