An individual who is unable to work because of sickness may still be entitled during their sickness absence to be paid: • statutory sick pay (SSP) under the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (SSCBA 1992) and the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982, SI 1982/894, and/or • contractual (or ‘occupational’) sick pay For further information, generally, see Practice Note: Sick pay. SSP In order to be eligible for SSP an individual must: • be an employee as defined and not fall within one of the excluded categories • be too ill to undertake any work under their contract of employment on any day for which they claim SSP, or be deemed to be so • have at least four consecutive days' sick absence (including Sundays and Bank holidays) during which they are too ill to work; this is referred to as a 'period

Under sections 210–219 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), continuity of service depends on: • when the continuous period starts • when the continuous period ends • whether there are any relevant breaks in continuity between the start and the end, and • whether any period of employment with another employer counts For information on continuity of employment generally, see Practice Note: Continuity of employment. If there is an interval of more than a week during which there was no contract of employment governing the relationship, ie the employee was dismissed or resigned and then subsequently (after the interval) re-employed by the same or an associated employer, that interval will not count towards continuity of employment, and continuity will be broken, unless it falls within one of three categories: • the employee was unable to work

In relation to contractual maternity pay, employers may agree contractual terms that are more generous than statutory entitlement for maternity pay. Contractual maternity schemes commonly require employees to pay back the difference between contractual (or enhanced) maternity pay and statutory maternity pay (SMP) unless they return to work for a minimum period after maternity leave. In Boyle v Equal Opportunities Commission, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) considered an employer's scheme under which a woman with at least one year's service who was not employed on a short-term contract was entitled to three months and one week's maternity leave on full pay, provided she stated her intention to return to work with the employer after childbirth and agreed that, if she failed to return for at least one month,

Relevant considerations may include: • employee/worker status • Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures • other possible claims by workers • grievance procedures Employee and worker status An employer may wish to consider whether the individual has been correctly categorised as a worker, and not also an employee, for employment law purposes. Detailed information on the definition of ‘employee’ for unfair dismissal purposes under the Employment Rights Act 1996 can be found in Practice Note: Employee status. For information on worker status, see Practice Note: Worker status. Note, however, that application of a grievance policy to a worker is also one of the factors that may be taken into account by an employment tribunal in determining employee status. See the section ‘Other terms consistent with contract of employment’ of Practice Note: Employee status. Even if the employer considers the individual

The Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 (the Commercial Agents Regulations), SI 1993/3053 implement EC Directive 86/653 and govern the relationship between Commercial Agents and their principal, with various provisions implied into all relevant commercial agency arrangements unless, in respect of certain of them, they are expressly excluded. They were amended in 1998 and, by new section 1(3) it was provided that a court or tribunal shall apply the law of the other Member State concerned in place of regulations 3 to 22 where the parties have agreed that the agency contract is to be governed by the law of that Member State and will apply the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993

Generally, terms may only be implied into contracts governed by the laws of England and Wales: • by statute, or • where common law tests are successfully applied Statutory implied terms relevant to intellectual property infringement Section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (SGA 1979) implies the following terms, among others and subject to some exceptions, into relevant contracts: • goods are free, and will remain free until the time when the property is to pass, from any charge or encumbrance—SGA 1979, s 12(1) • the buyer will enjoy quiet possession of the goods—SGA 1979, s 12(2) Accordingly, a seller may be in breach of SGA 1979, s 12 if contrary third party property rights existed at the time of entering into contract or are subsequently enforced. See Microbeads v Vinhurst Road Markings, a patent case, which confirmed that both SGA 1979, ss 12(1) and 12(2) could be breached if there was a claim for intellectual property

This is a question about the proper interpretation of a Will. It is a cardinal rule of interpretation of any document not to try to interpret individual words and/or phrases in isolation, but only in the context of the document as a whole, and in the context of the whole factual circumstances. In Will interpretation, the factual circumstances are sometimes referred to as the ‘armchair rule’—take into account all the information the testator had when sitting in their armchair. As held in Marley v Rawlings: '[19] When interpreting a contract, the court is concerned to find the intention of the party or parties, and it does this by identifying the meaning of the relevant words,

Meaning of non-exclusive vs meaning of exclusive and sole The terms ‘exclusive’, ‘non-exclusive’ and ‘sole’ are used frequently to describe the rights granted under both agency and distribution agreements, but these terms have no set legal meaning and so it is important to define precisely what is meant by these terms within the agreements themselves. The common meaning of these three forms of agency relationships are: • exclusive—only the agent may sell or supply the designated products in the specified territory and the principal may not do so or appoint others to do so • sole—the principal may sell or supply the products in the territory but may not appoint other agents to do so • non-exclusive—the principal may sell or supply the contract goods in the territory and may appoint

Pursuant to most leases, a landlord will have the right to re-entry or forfeiture upon a breach of a tenant’s covenant. Even where the lease is silent as to forfeiture, it may be shown that a breach is so serious that it goes to the root of the contract between the parties, and the right to forfeit automatically arises. Save for in certain cases including the nonpayment of rent, a landlord cannot enforce a right to forfeit for a breach of covenant unless and until it has served a section 146 notice pursuant to the Law of Property Act 1925. This must give the tenant a reasonable time in which to remedy the breach, if the breach is indeed capable of remedy. A

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, SI 1998/1833 (WTR 1998), a 'night worker' is one who: • 'as a normal course' works at least three hours of their daily working time during night time, or • is specified as a night worker in a collective agreement or workforce agreement ‘Night time' is, by default, the period between 11pm and 6am. This can be varied by a relevant agreement (eg a contract of employment) to be any period which: • is a period of not less than seven hours, and • includes the period between midnight and 5am A person works hours 'as a normal course' (without prejudice to the generality of that expression) if they work such hours on the majority

A contracting authority might wish to invite a bidder to correct a mistake in a tender submission for a public contract. Such a correction might serve to ensure that a bid which would otherwise be inadmissible, remains in the tender process, or it might result in the authority receiving a better offer if the tenderer has erroneously submitted a higher price than it intended to. Both cases are consistent with the objective of promoting the widest possible competition. However, the discretion of contracting authorities to approach tenderers in this way is potentially open to abuse and is therefore is tightly controlled. It goes without saying that a contracting authority cannot invite a bidder to amend its tender in a way which would not be permitted if the bidder approached the contracting authority. 'Mere clarification' to correct obvious errors, which was discussed in SAG ELV Slovensko v Urad, should be

A system of civil and criminal penalties for employers who hire illegal workers exists for employment commencing from 29 February 2008 under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. A person is an illegal worker if he is a person aged 16 or over who requires leave to enter or remain under the Immigration Act 1971 and: • he has not been granted leave to enter or remain in the UK, or • his leave to enter or remain is not valid or has ceased to have effect for any reason, or • his leave to enter or remain is subject to a condition precluding him from taking up employment For the purposes of illegal working legislation, employment is considered to be any employment relationship that is under a contract of service or apprenticeship, whether expressed or implied and whether oral or written. In other words, the civil and criminal offences that an employer can commit