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Creative Worker visas: common compliance pitfalls and tips to avoid them
30 May 2024The Creative Worker route has become increasingly popular as a more practical and convenient alternative to mainstream sponsored work routes such as the Skilled Worker route, which now has restrictively high salary requirements. In this article, we highlight key compliance pitfalls under the Creative Worker route and offer tips on how to avoid them.
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Workplace Relations Commission publishes Annual Report – what are the key takeaways?
30 May 2024Each year, the Workplace Relations Commission (‘WRC), the body responsible for adjudicating on employment law disputes in Ireland, publishes a report on the previous year’s activities. This report always makes for interesting reading for employers and identifies some of the key trends developing in employment law matters before the WRC. In this article, Linda Hynes, Partner with Lewis Silkin Ireland, highlights the key takeaways and interesting points for employers.
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Contract Interpretation Guide
29 May 2024The meaning of words used in contracts is of key importance. The choice of certain words or phrases can significantly impact upon the obligations of one party to another and using them in contracts without thought to their meaning and implications can result in uncertainty, unintended consequences, a mismatch of expectations and, ultimately, legal disputes.
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Unsigned contracts prior to performance
29 May 2024Though not best practice, it is not uncommon for parties to begin to perform duties under a contract before it is signed. When this situation arises, the question is what terms, if any, are the parties bound by?
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Contractual good faith
29 May 2024The concept of good faith is something of a problem child in contract law. English law has no general doctrine of good faith in contracts. The law has traditionally prized party autonomy in contract formation. That being the case, contracting parties are free to agree to include duties and obligations of good faith in their agreements. This is frequently done, and so despite the absence of a good faith doctrine, the English courts have nevertheless grappled with the question of what is meant by a duty of good faith when interpreting contracts containing such provisions.
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Interpretation of exemption clauses
29 May 2024Parties often include provisions in their contracts that seek to exclude (in its entirety) or limit (to a particular level) a contracting party’s liability in respect of certain types of liability or loss. These clauses can serve the useful purpose of allocating risk between the parties and thereby giving the parties certainty as to what their potential exposure is under the contract.
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Meaning of ‘endeavours’
29 May 2024Contracts often include an obligation for a party to use ‘best endeavours’, ‘reasonable endeavours’ or ‘all reasonable endeavours’, or other variations of the same, to achieve a defined objective. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish what different drafting actually means practice. We provide guidance on how to interpret endeavours clauses below.
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Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act – the new law explained
29 May 2024The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act has passed after being rushed through parliament in the final hours before the election campaign started. The Act will give new rights to bereaved fathers and partners where a child’s mother dies.
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Pay Transparency Directive: new employee rights to pay information
29 May 2024The impact of the new Pay Transparency Directive extends beyond gender pay gap reporting. Alongside requiring employers to report gender pay disparities, it also grants employees new rights to information about pay. Employers need to start preparing for much greater openness.
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What type of breach?
29 May 2024Contractual breaches can come in many forms. Some are serious, giving the wronged party the right to terminate the contract. Others will be more minor, and might be easily remediable. It can be useful to think of contractual breaches as a sliding scale, with repudiatory breaches at one end, and minor, remediable breaches at the other.
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When is consent unreasonably withheld?
29 May 2024The phrase ‘consent not to be unreasonably withheld’ is often seen in commercial contracts. However when is withholding consent actually unreasonable and how can this be determined?
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Can victims of sexual harassment choose to stay anonymous?
28 May 2024A recent decision in the Hong Kong District Court sets out the legal principles to be applied in the granting of Anonymity Orders in sexual harassment cases. In this case, the Respondent’s application to set aside an Anonymity Order in favour of the Claimant was granted, sending a clear message that anonymity in sexual harassment claims is not automatic and must be properly obtained.
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What is R&D tax relief?
24 May 2024Many businesses incur expenditure on innovative projects. If any of those projects is seeking to make an advance in the fields of science or technology, the costs of that project may be eligible for R&D tax relief.
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Blockchain and IP rights
23 May 2024Blockchains, crypto assets and distributed ledger technology are all experiencing increased interest and sizable adoption. There are multiple websites, YouTube channels, blogs, articles, and communities committed to exploring their possibilities, development, and application.
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Pre-settled status improvements
23 May 2024The Home Office has announced that pre-settled status extensions will be in five-year blocks and that repeat right to work and right to rent checks will be abolished. New regulations also increase the absence period that causes pre-settled status to lapse.
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What does the UK general election mean for employment law?
23 May 2024The Labour party has ambitious plans for reforming workers’ rights, so employment law will be a focus of the election campaign. As the manifestos are being finalised, here’s our summary of the key pledges and questions for employers.
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Can employees be suspended from work if they are arrested?
23 May 2024MPs now face exclusion from Parliament upon arrest for serious crimes. This has raised questions about the fairness of suspending at this point, for both MPs and employees outside Parliament. We explore best practice for suspending employees in the workplace.
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European Works Councils: abolition of the UK’s legal framework?
22 May 2024As part of its efforts to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses, the government has initiated a consultation on its plan to remove the legal framework for maintaining legacy European Works Councils in the UK. We explore why the repeal of “ill thought through legislation” is likely to be welcomed.
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Consultation on reforms to TUPE: would it be smarter?
22 May 2024Under the banner of “smarter regulation”, the government has launched a consultation into reform of TUPE. The government promises simplicity and clarity, but would it deliver?
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Immigration reform will attract talent - Declan Groarke writes for the Law Society
20 May 2024Measures aimed at strengthening Ireland’s appeal as a top destination for skilled international workers have been approved. Further changes with the same purpose may also be in the pipeline writes Declan Groarke.