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NEWS IN BRIEF
‘Hellier’ Stradivari violin fails to sell at auction bit.ly/3SaOMboThe ‘Hellier’ violin (left), made by Antonio Stradivari in c.1679, failed to find a buyer at Christie’s auction house in London on 7 July. It was expected to sell for between £6 million and £9 million, with a starting price of £5.5 million; however, no one offered a bid and the violin was passed at the starting price. ‘Having inspired huge international excitement, admiration and interest from announcement, we look forward to seeing its next chapter unfold,’ said Amjad Rauf, Christie’s international head of masterpiece and private sales.
UK Supreme Court ruling secures fair holiday pay for music teachers bit.ly/3zsXsCyThanks to the efforts of a music teacher, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that all workers in the UK will now receive the same minimum level of paid annual leave, even if they only work during school term times. Music teacher Lesley Brazel sued her employer the Harpur Trust after it changed the way it calculated holiday pay. Brazel argued that her employer was wrong to give her fewer days of annual leave than the legal minimum because she only worked during the school term. The ruling now means that all workers are owed the same legal minimum of 5.6 weeks’ holiday, according to the Working Time Regulations 1998 (the WTR) even if there are months in the year that they do not work. The judges unanimously found in favour of Brazel, commenting: ‘The idea of leave accruing over the year as and when hours are worked was inconsistent with the WTR.’