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Against the background of the biggest arts festival in the world, there have been some shocking findings recently about the treatment of performers and other workers at the Fringe. The purpose of this paper is to consider the type of treatment a significant number of Fringe workers experience and how it might be dealt with under the law. The mistreatment of workers includes being: required to work excessively long hours, paid low wages or no wages, subject to sexual or street harassment, lookism, ageism or deprivation of other employment rights. What is unusual about Fringe workers is they normally only work for a short time (often a maximum of two months). Also, in respect of performers and other theatre workers, they might be inclined to work on a voluntary, unpaid basis to gain the necessary experience to kickstart their careers. Employers will often be theatrical promoters in charge of productions at a number of venues. This paper highlights the issues surrounding working at the Fringe and identifies the employment law issues for its workers. This involves identifying likely breaches of legislation under the civil law and contract law by employers. Also, the consideration of how the criminal law could apply to the treatment of workers is undertaken. Finally, it involves an analysis of how the rights of Fringe workers could be better protected. The findings and recommendations in this paper will have application to any situation where someone is employed as a volunteer or worker in an artistic setting on a short-term basis.

This paper is a review of sources drawn from articles in law journals, newspapers, etc.

The findings of this paper suggest that there is a need for reform of the law.

This paper focuses on improving the rights of Fringe workers who have a history of being neglected or abused.

This paper ensures improved rights for Fringe workers.

This paper analyses issues that are relevant for all workers in the arts at festivals, etc., throughout the UK.

This paper is extremely original.

Banter has been defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “the playful and friendly exchange of playful remarks” [www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/banter]. This suggests that it is a form of dialogue or conversation that is welcome, non-threatening and appreciated by the recipient. However, this is often not the case, and the purpose of this paper is to consider the legal rules dealing with banter where it is threatening, unwanted or oppressive to the recipient. Where there is a discriminatory aspect to the banter, the protection provided under equality law will be considered. Banter can be directed at workers with different characteristics (e.g. disability, age, religion, sex, race or sexual orientation), and this paper will consider discriminatory banter whatever the basis. The different types of dialogues falling under the term banter will be analysed and the extent to which legal protection is in place to deal with it will be considered. The statutory legal rules dealing with harassment and bullying in the UK are the most relevant to controlling workplace banter and accordingly will be given primary consideration. Finally, recommendations will be made for improving both management practice and the law in this area.

The methodology used is a thorough review of secondary sources in the UK including relevant statutes and legal cases and research undertaken in this area.

There is a need for legislative change to protect victims of unwanted workplace banter.

Legal and managerial solutions to a complex problem.

Very few sources of primary research.

Highly original.

This paper aims to summarise current law dealing with third party harassment in workplaces in the UK and make recommendations for improving law.

Review of case law, articles etc.

It is found that the current law is inadequate and unclear, and in dire need of reform.

This research study will be useful for trade unions and employers and employees and workers.

This study supports the cause of reform of the law.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is an original piece of work.

This study aims to critically review new developments in the law of tort dealing with employee references.

The author analysed various sources including statutes, articles and case law to determine current position. This paper will consider new developments in the law of tort dealing with employee references. The real issue for an employee arises when an employer or their manager provides them or their prospective new employer with an employment reference about them that is untrue or misleading. The impact on the employee might be that they lose a job opportunity and/or suffer damage to their reputation. In these circumstances, the subject of the reference currently has legal redress under the law of tort under both common and statute laws. This paper will concentrate on analysing the legal redress available under the law of tort and critically review this legal process in light of recent legal decisions and other legal developments. There have been various statutory developments in the area of tort which could apply here that they have resulted in the scope for a legal action being considerably limited. These have been highlighted. Also, recent cases have presented obstacles to future claims being brought in certain circumstances and these have been analysed.

The outcome of this is that pursuing a claim under the law of tort more has been made more difficult for the employees affected and accordingly is less likely to be successful. This is clearly a serious issue that deserves recognition and possibly changes in the law. A conclusion which this article supports.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, little has been written on this topic to date, so this paper will fill a serious void.

The recent development of legal rules that can invalidate sham clauses or bogus contracts in employment have proven beneficial to workers, in particular those workers that want to be treated as employees. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

This article considers relevant legal decisions from all areas of employment law that have a bearing on this topic.

As will be seen when a court or tribunal has a reasonable suspicion that the clause (or the contract itself) is a sham that is designed, for example, to exclude employee status (to those persons working under a contract with an employer) they may decide to ignore it and treat the contract as a contract of service. The affected worker will then have entitlement to the full range of employment rights available to an employee.

As a consequence of recent legal decisions particularly, those over the last three years an employer that introduces a clause into his contracts (or enters in contractual relations with his workers) needs to ensure that the clause or contract is genuine and operates in practice as it states that it intends to.

If a clause or contract is not genuine and does not operate in practice as it states that it intends to, as the title of this article suggests, there might be serious legal implications for an employer. The clause (usually a substitution clause) or the type of contract entered into must not simply be a device to circumvent the correct application of the law in other words perpetrate a sham.

The legal impact of clauses or type of contract entered into is analysed fully for the first time in this paper.

This paper aims to cast light on the legal aspects of a problem which in the past, because of its nature, has largely gone unrecognised and become part and parcel of working life. The paper seeks to provide an overview of the current legal treatment of sexual favouritism in the UK and USA and recommends how it can be improved.

The law in the USA is chosen for comparison because they have a system of employment law which is more longstanding and because the volume of cases dealt with there provides more examples than that in the UK. The law in this area is analysed through consideration of the relevant legal decisions and statutes and codes of practice that apply in both jurisdictions.

This article highlights the key issues for victims and employees involved in sexual relationships with their supervisor at work and encourages employers to take steps to combat this practice. It will also hopefully persuade the judiciary to interpret the existing law to provide a remedy to its victims or legislators to introduce specific legal protection for them.

Unfortunately there is a dearth of legal cases dealing with sexual favouritism in the UK and very few commentators writing on this issue. Sexual favouritism is regarded as an acceptable practice at work by employers and managers and there are no plans for changing the law to provide protection to its victims in both jurisdictions. Hopefully this article will serve to persuade employers to combat this behaviour in the workplace and convince the judiciary and Parliament to change the law in favour of victims of sexual favouritism. Primary research into the incidence rate of sexual favouritism and its impact in the workplace would be extremely useful to underpin the conclusions of this paper.

This paper examines for the first time the legal rights both of victims of sexual favouritism and of employees involved in a sexual relationship and includes a comparison between the legal rules dealing with this issue in the United Kingdom and the USA. It will be of particular value to human resource managers and line managers who have to deal with this issue in the workplace and legal representatives who are called upon to represent victims in their legal claims.

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the impact of recent case law on the various evidential requirements in the area of indirect sex and indirect race discrimination in employment. It is intended to distil from the case law a comprehensive summary of the evidential requirements which an applicant in such a case must meet in order to succeed.

The evidential issues and the requirements to be fulfilled by an applicant in such cases will be identified and analysed by means of a review of the case law in this area.

Despite attempts of the courts to clarify the evidential requirements in this type of case, the law in this area remains complicated and confusing. Close analysis of the case law results in the identification and clarification of particular evidential “hurdles” which an applicant must clear in order to succeed.

The effect of these requirements results in a burden on an applicant in a case of indirect discrimination which is difficult to meet and the identification and clarification of the main issues will allow an applicant to focus on these requirements and increase the chances of a successful outcome. In this way the protection afforded by the law on indirect discrimination will become more effective. The findings are also useful in explaining to managers the nature and impact of the case law in this area.

For longer than most people would think, over 40 years, organisational psychologists have been defining and characterising the employment relationship in terms of the psychological contract. Across the same period, judges have through their decisions in legal cases been setting down implied terms that apply to all contracts of employment. Accompanying this development certain commentators, drawn from both academic and practitioner backgrounds have been analysing these terms in considerable detail. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature and importance of the concept of the psychological contract and consider its application in the context of the most important implied terms in the contract of employment.

This article was written from a review of the secondary sources of the two disciplines covered. It was only possible to give an overview of the key areas and their influence and given that these two areas had not been analysed together before there was little material available to refer to. The underlying question is how complimentary and compatible are these concepts? This is fully considered through analysis of the effect of their combination in explaining or de‐limiting the employment relationship and the contract of employment.

It is contended that as both these contracts have in some respects a common purpose it seems an opportune time to reflect on their role and their potential, if any, for combined utilisation in the workplace.

It is contended that this research is important as it analyses the nature and impact of two different contractual models that characterise and regulate the employment relationship. These models are drawn from two separate disciplines and as far as this commentator is aware this is the first time this specific form of analysis has been undertaken.