Selwyn’s Law of Employment is regarded as essential reading by law students and practising lawyers, and those studying employment law in a business or professional environment. This edition continues Norman Selwyn’s practical approach to the subject, providing a succinct account of all areas of employment law. Both individual and collective employment law issues are considered, alongside a broad range of UK and EU case law. New to this edition, the text provides coverage of the new IR35 legislation and the new immigration rules as well as an overview of the coronavirus legislation as it relates to employment, such as compulsory vaccination, the furlough scheme and self-isolation. There is also an up-to-date discussion of the gig economy employment status case law, and freedom of expression, and belief.
Chapter
3. Contracts of employment (2): content and wages
Ian Smith, Owen Warnock, and Gemma Mitchell
This chapter explores where express terms come from, especially if they are not all neatly set out in writing, and then goes on to consider how terms become implied. Here, several significant differences between ordinary commercial contracts and employment contracts will be seen, both in the scale of the use of implied terms in employment law to ‘perfect’ the bargain and in the sheer strength of some of these frequently implied terms that can, in practice, be just as important as express terms. Having looked at where these terms come from, the chapter goes on to consider the principal duties that they impose on employers and employees, some of which are old and obvious, such as the employer’s duty to pay wages and the employee’s duty of obedience to lawful orders. On the other hand, some are more recent and more at the cutting edge of modern employment law, such as the implied term of trust and confidence for the employee and the topical controversies over confidentiality at work in an age of electronic communication and social media. The chapter concludes by considering specifically the law on wages, including the statutory requirements of paying the national minimum wage and the national living wage.
Chapter
10. Performance of the Contract of Employment
This chapter begins with a discussion of the personal nature of the employment contract, and the fact that such a contract is necessarily one of personal service which gives rise to duties and obligations on both sides. It deals with issues such as the implied duties of the employer to provide for the employee (including the implied duty to provide work, pay wages, confidentiality, and the implied duty of trust and confidence), and the corresponding implied obligations of the employee (including the duty of faithful service, duty to use skill and care). There is also a discussion of whistleblowing and public interest disclosures. It then explains employer’s vicarious liability, and harassment and bullying.
Chapter
22. Privacy and confidentiality
This chapter discusses the law on privacy and confidentiality in the workplace. It looks at the four statutes which relate directly to issues of workplace confidentiality: the GDPR/Data Protection Act 2018, the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (which deals with whistleblowing), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000. It also considers two other areas of law which are influences in this area: the law on job references and the law on restricting the activities of former employees. Also discussed is the impact of the Human Rights Act in this area.
Chapter
3. Contracts of employment (2): content and wages
This chapter explores where express terms come from, especially if they are not all neatly set out in writing, and then goes on to consider how terms become implied. Here, several significant differences between ordinary commercial contracts and employment contracts will be seen, both in the scale of the use of implied terms in employment law to ‘perfect’ the bargain and in the sheer strength of some of these frequently implied terms that can, in practice, be just as important as express terms. Having looked at where these terms come from, the chapter goes on to consider the principal duties that they impose on employers and employees, some of which are old and obvious, such as the employer’s duty to pay wages and the employee’s duty of obedience to lawful orders. On the other hand, some are more recent and more at the cutting edge of modern employment law, such as the implied term of trust and confidence for the employee and the topical controversies over confidentiality at work in an age of electronic communication and social media. The chapter concludes by considering specifically the law on wages, including the statutory requirements of paying the national minimum wage and the national living wage.
