Employee Rights in Corporate Insolvency : A UK and US Perspective

This book analyses corporate rescue laws, processes and policies prescribed in

corporate insolvency or bankruptcy laws, and employment laws of the UK and

the US, with a particular focus on how extant employee rights are treated when

a debtor employer initiates corporate insolvency proceedings.

The commencement of formal insolvency proceedings by an employer affects

employees’ rights and interests. Employment laws seek to protect employees’ rights

and interests, while insolvency laws seek to promote corporate rescue, which may

entail workforce changes. Consequently, this creates a tension between whose

interest insolvency law should give primacy of protection. The book analyses how

corporate rescue processes such as administration, pre-pack business sales, company

voluntary arrangements, receivership and liquidation impact employee rights

and protection during corporate rescue proceedings in both jurisdictions. It goes

on to address how the federal system of government in the US and the diffusion

of power between federal and state law jurisdictions impact a uniform code of employee

protection during Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation proceedings. The

book considers how an interpretative approach to law (Dworkin’s Interpretative

Theory of Law) may be used to balance both employee protection and corporate

rescue laws during corporate insolvency in the UK and the US.

Of interest to academics, students and employment law practitioners, this

book examines the tension between corporate rescue laws and employment protection

laws during corporate insolvency in the US and the UK and how this

tension may be remedied or balanced.