Employment law - 'Sam, one of the directors of the company feels uneasy about the legal implications of the practice and comes to you seeking advice…What advice would you offer him?'

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Mark Taylor’s Group:

ILLS PROJECT:

‘Sam, one of the directors of the company feels uneasy about the legal implications of the practice and comes to you seeking advice…What advice would you offer him?’

Research Method:

This question covers a broad section of inter-related sub-topic areas, all of which are relevant to employment law. For this reason I began by reading a simple introduction to employment law; I used ‘Employment Law-Specific Rights’ by C.J Carr and P.J Kay in order to gain some basic knowledge of the subject. The book deals with wrongful and unfair dismissal and discrimination, concentrating on employer as well as employee rights. It provides a brief explanation of each thus allowing me to break down my argument into various sections.

I realised however that further research was required as the statutes referred to by Carr and Kay were out of date.

I decided to look at relevant statutes directly. I found these using

Halsbury’s statutes as well as the statute encyclopaedias in the law library. The key statutes with regard to the question come in the form of:

  • Unfair Contract Terms Act (1977)
  • The Disability Act (1995)
  •  The Employment Rights Act (1996)
  • The Data Protection Act (1998)
  • The Human Rights Act (1998)
  • The Employment Relations Act (1999)
  • The Employment Act (2002)

After reading the statutes it became apparent that some would be more important than others in relation to the question. In terms of definite employment law, the Employment Rights Act (1996) stands above the ancillary acts that come after it i.e. the Employment Relations Act (1999) and the Employment Act (2002).

Having decided that the Employment Rights Act was of importance I searched for a book that would be relevant to both the Act and the notion of dismissal, which is a dominant part of the question. ‘Compensation for Dismissal’ by Anthony Korn was extremely helpful in defining the position and rights of employees and employers when the former are dismissed, while at the same time making constant allusions to the Employment Rights Act. It also served to increase my understanding of the various avenues that dismissed workers and interviewees would be able to use against Sam and his company. I discovered that in terms of making an initial complaint those involved with ‘Type U Like’ could either make a claim for wrongful or unfair dismissal (or both, although they would not be compensated twice), or alternatively they could base their claim on a breach of the Disability Act (1995)

As wrongful dismissal is ‘essentially an extension of the ordinary common law rules which govern the termination of a contract’, I read relevant pages from Adam’s and Brownsword’s ‘Understanding Contract Law’ and Ewan McKendrick’s ‘Contract Law’. In doing so I gained information regarding breach of contracts and the Unfair Contracts Act. I read more specifically from Treitel’s ‘The Law of Contract’ in order to investigate standard form contracts.

Most of my information regarding unfair dismissal was found in ‘Compensation for Dismissal’ but I also used ‘Unfair Dismissal Cases’ (2nd edition) by John E McGlyne in order to broaden my knowledge of procedure and so that I would further understand the variance involved.

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Finally, I wanted to understand the tone of modern employment law. I needed to know how more about the position of those involved. I read ‘Leading Cases and Materials on the Social Policy of the EEC’ by Angela Byre. Although she deals mostly with sexual and racial discrimination the book provided me with information regarding EU directives expressly concerned with protecting the employee and it reflects an inherent desire to eradicate discrimination and fundamental breaches of contract, both of which are of paramount importance to the essay.

Essay:

The actions of ‘Type U Like’ reflect the ...

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