The Q&A series offer the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary, and illustrative diagrams and flowcharts. This chapter gives students advice on skills for success in employment law exams. It includes tips on how to get the most out of an employment law course and how best to use the revision period. Students are also provided with helpful hints on what to do in the exam room to ensure that they have the best chance of success, as well as advice on the structure and approach to problem questions and essays.
Chapter
1. Exam skills for success in employment law
Chapter
6. Statutory employment protection and related contractual issues
The Q&A series offer the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary, and illustrative diagrams and flowcharts. This chapter presents sample exam questions about statutory employment protection and related contractual issues. Through a mixture of problem questions and essays, students are guided through some of the key issues on the topic of statutory employment protection including eligibility requirements for the right not to be unfairly dismissed, the right to written reasons for dismissal, statutory minimum notice periods, the right to be accompanied to disciplinary hearings, and the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures. Students are also introduced to the current key debates in the area and provided with suggestions for additional reading for those who want to take things further.
Chapter
6. Parental rights
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the law on parental rights. Topics covered include maternity leave, parental leave, time off for dependants, the right to request flexible working, and the new right of parents to bereavement leave. The right to shared parental leave (SPL) is singled out for detailed treatment, partly because it is fairly new, and partly because, some would say, it exemplifies an old-fashioned approach to sex equality when caring for newborns. The option as to whether her partner can share in SPL is for the mother to decide; the mother may receive (by contract) enhanced maternity pay, but there is no enhanced SPL. The effect is to reinforce the mother’s staying at home because if she goes back to work, the family will lose most of the partner’s income because the rate of pay for SPL is low, around £151 a week. The latter point is arguably sex discrimination, and, during the currency of this book, the Employment Appeal Tribunal will decide this issue (at the time of writing employment tribunals are split).
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8. Statutory redundancy payments and consultation procedures
The Q&A series offer the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary, and illustrative diagrams and flowcharts. This chapter presents sample exam questions about statutory redundancy payments and consultation procedures. Through a mixture of problem questions and essays, students are guided through some of the key issues on the topic of statutory redundancy pay including the qualifying period to be eligible, the definition of redundancy, procedural fairness, case law on ‘work of a particular kind’, bumping, suitable alternative employment, and calculating statutory redundancy pay. Students are also introduced to the current key debates in the area and provided with suggestions for additional reading for those who want to take things further.
Chapter
9. Equality law
The Q&A series offer the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary, and illustrative diagrams and flowcharts. This chapter presents sample exam questions about equality law. Through a mixture of problem questions and essays, students are guided through some of the key issues on the topic of equality law including the range of protected characteristics, direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and the duty to make reasonable adjustments. Students are also introduced to the current key debates in the area and provided with suggestions for additional reading for those who want to take things further.
Book
Michael Jefferson
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. Employment Law Concentrate helps to consolidate knowledge in this area of law. This seventh edition includes updates on employment law, including further coverage of the employment status, written particulars, restraint of trade, and equal pay. The book includes discussion of recent cases, including Supreme Court ones, and forthcoming amendments to the law are noted where appropriate. The volume also looks at implied terms, discrimination, parental rights, working time, and types of breach of employment contracts and termination of employment contracts. Finally, the text looks at dismissal issues (including both wrongful and unfair dismissal), redundancy, and trade unions. The chapter on trade unions has been transferred to online-only content, available in the online resources for this book.
Chapter
1. Employment status
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the concept of employment status. Topics covered include the reasons for distinguishing employees from other types of worker; statutory definitions of employee and worker; and the courts’ and tribunals’ approach to identifying employees. The tests for employment status are stated, concentrating on mutuality of obligations and personal service. Discussion centres on zero hours contracts, agency workers, and the gig economy.
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11. Continuity of employment and TUPE
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses continuous employment and the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). An employee’s period of continuous employment begins on the day on which the employee starts work. Although continuity provisions normally apply to employment by one employer, there are situations where a transfer from one employer to another can preserve continuity of employment. One such situation is when there is a relevant transfer under TUPE. TUPE acts to ensure that an individual’s contract of employment is transferred in its entirety when the individual employee experiences a change of employer as a result of a transfer.
Chapter
2. Contracts of employment
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses employment contracts. Covenants potentially in restraint of trade are express written terms which may apply during the contract, but are usually expressed to apply after termination. They are a rare illustration of contractual terms, which must be in writing. The general purpose of these is to prevent a former employee competing against his former employers; for example, by taking commercially confidential information or influencing customers to give their business to the firm he has joined. The Supreme Court has recently ruled on the width of the doctrine of severance of such covenants. Topics covered include the provision of the written statement, a right which employees have enjoyed since 1963, but which was extended to workers in 2020; the sources of terms in employment contracts; duties of the employer; and duties of the employee. These duties or implied terms are divided into terms implied in law (ie inserted into every contract of employment) and terms implied in fact (ie inserted into a particular contract of employment). The latter are divided into terms implied in fact which work against the employers’ interests and terms which work against the employees’ interests. Examples of the former include the duty to pay wages; examples of the latter include the duty to obey reasonable orders.
Chapter
7. Working time
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter focuses on the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR). The WTR implement the Working Time Directive 1993 and parts of the Young Workers Directive 1994. The WTR impose a maximum 48-hour week during a 17-week reference period and provide rules on night work, rest periods, and annual leave. The UK has opted out of the maximum 48-hour working week. It was the sole European Union Member State to do so. On Brexit, the WTR are one of the areas which may come under attack from neoliberals.
Chapter
8. Variation, breach, and termination of employment
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses variations of terms and conditions of employment. Theoretically, neither employer nor employee can unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of employment. A unilateral variation that is not accepted will constitute a breach and, if serious, could amount to a repudiation of the contract. A repudiation does not automatically terminate a contract of employment. In order to justify summary dismissal, the employee must be in breach of an important express or implied term of the contract.
Chapter
9. Unfair dismissal
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the law on unfair dismissal. The principal cases are discussed in full. It is easy to get lost in the mass of case law and concentration must be kept on the statute and these leading cases. The employer must demonstrate that the reason for the dismissal relates to capability or qualifications, conduct, a statutory ban, or some other substantial reason of a kind to justify the dismissal. An employer must act reasonably in treating a reason as sufficient for dismissal. This is the famous ‘range of reasonable responses’ test. It should be guided by the ACAS Code of Practice 2015 and must follow contractual procedures. The remedies for unfair dismissal include re-employment or compensation.
