Private Law Theory

INTRODUCTION
In what circumstances should workers be entitled to enforce their legal rights in a court of law where the legal claim is somehow tainted by criminal activity? In Okedina v Chikale the Court of Appeal considered the effects of the illegality doctrine on a migrant worker’s contract claims in circumstances where she did not have a ‘right to work’. These claims included unfair and wrongful dismissal; unlawful deductions from wages by reference to her contract and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999; unpaid holiday pay; other breaches of the Working Time Regulations 1998; and a failure to provide written particulars and itemised payslips.

€

Alan Bogg, Okedina v Chikale and Contract Illegality: New Dawn or False Dawn?, Industrial Law Journal, Volume 49, Issue 2, June 2020, Pages 258–283, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwaa008.

First posted 2020-05-04 05:58:02