Category Archives: Employment and Labour Law
Niezna and Davidov, ‘Consent in Contracts of Employment’
ABSTRACT This article considers the problem of questionable consent in contracts of employment. We suggest that in the context of employment, consent should be understood as a continuum that includes some level of coercion and some level of choice. We show that despite labour law’s assumption of inequality of bargaining power, consent is still legally […]
Collins and Golding, ‘An Implied Term of Procedural Fairness During Disciplinary Processes: Into Contracts of Employment and Beyond?’
ABSTRACT The implication of a new term by law into contracts of employment is significant and relatively rare. In somewhat of a revelation, members of the Court of Appeal in Burn v Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust were receptive to the introduction of a duty that would require employers to act in accordance with […]
Adams-Prassl, ‘Uber BV v Aslam: “[W]ork relations … cannot safely be left to contractual regulation”’
INTRODUCTION Uber drivers, the UK Supreme Court ruled in early 2021, are workers – and they are working whenever they are ‘“on duty” logged onto the Uber app in London available to accept a trip request’. Uber, a global transportation services provider founded just over a decade ago, is one of the archetypical platforms at […]
Campbell, ‘Vicarious liability: analysing relationships akin to employment’
INTRODUCTION Vicarious liability is the treatment, regardless of fault, of one defendant as liable for another defendant’s wrong. The two-stage basic inquiry centres on whether (i) the defendants’ relationship is one of employment, or one akin to employment; and (ii) the wrongdoing is so closely connected with acts which the wrongdoer is authorised to do […]
‘The Impact of Arbitration Clauses’
Farshad Ghodoosi and Monica M Sharif, ‘Arbitration Effect’ (January 26, 2022), available at SSRN. Arbitration is a hotly debated topic which has garnered significant scholarly attention from both opponents and proponents. Nevertheless, arbitration clauses are prevalent in employment and consumer agreements. Furthermore, the US Supreme Court, has generally enforced these clauses through a series of […]
Douglas Brodie, ‘Constructive Dismissal: The Contractual Maze’
“… In my view, the introduction of constructive dismissal was an admirable step. It provides the beleaguered employee with a measure of empowerment and allows them to bring an unsatisfactory situation to an end whilst, at the same, affording a means of access to an employment tribunal. The way in which constructive dismissal is expressed […]
Phil Syrpis, ‘The Influence of the EU on UK Labour Law – Before and After Brexit’
ABSTRACT This article examines the influence of the EU over UK labour law, before and after Brexit. It compares the influence of the EU within the internal market with that under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) agreed in December 2020. It focuses both on the different mechanisms through which labour law standards may […]
Cynthia Estlund, ‘Wrongful discharge law in the land of employment-at-will: A US perspective on unjust dismissal’
“Fifty years after the United Kingdom adopted the principle of fairness in dismissals, the United States remains a global outlier in its continuing adherence to the presumption of ‘employment-at-will’ (EAW). In 49 out of 50 states, absent an agreement ensuring job security, employees can be fired without notice at any time and without any reason. […]
Emerson and Hunt, ‘Franchisees, Consumers, and Employees: Choice and Arbitration’
ABSTRACT Commentators and lawmakers have called attention to the rising frequency of contractual arbitration as a non-negotiable condition of many relationships. Indeed, it is a rare individual who is not subject to at least one pre-dispute, binding arbitration agreement. This Article studies common concerns associated with binding, pre-dispute arbitration agreements and evaluates their use in […]
Annika Rosin, ‘Towards a European Employment Status: The EU Proposal for a Directive on Improving Working Conditions in Platform Work’
“On 9th December 2021, the European Commission (the Commission) proposed a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work (the Proposal). The purpose of the Directive is to improve the working conditions of persons performing platform work while supporting the sustainable growth of digital labour platforms in the EU. The Directive foresees three main packages […]