A force majeure clause in a contract allows the parties to avoid their contractual obligations on the occurrence of an unforeseeable event, which is not under the control of any of the parties to the contract. It is applied to relieve the parties from their part of performance on that pretext. Legal experts have now asked companies to review their important commercial contracts and go through the ‘force majeure’ clauses, which if invoked can help them to avoid contracts based on the swine flu pandemic. An accredited course for the CIPD certificate in personnel practice will help you to gain a broad grasp of employment law so you can set your own organisation’s policies and procedures in context.
However, this would not be an easy task for companies as they will have to put up a legal defence for decision of revocation and unless the courts can be persuaded about the validity of the reason, they might not uphold the clause.
On the other hand, if there is a declaration on part of the Government, that swine flu has become a full-fledged pandemic, the task of the companies may become much easier. For instance, if the Government says that workers should not go to work due to swine flu or declare an emergency due to the rapid spread of the flu, then companies will have to put in less effort in proving their case.
Technology law expert of Pinsent Masons, David McIlwaine said that if swine flu takes such dimensions as to render half the workforce in the companies sick and unable to work, companies would be forced to take recourse to the force majeure clause.
