Article Category: Employment Law & HR – Insight & Opinion

Most employers understand that the purpose of an appeal hearing following a dismissal is to review the decision for dismissal and deal with any appeal points raised. However, what if the employee provides new information at the appeal stage that the original decision maker was unaware of at the time of making the dismissal decision?… Read more »

Most employers are aware that if an employee is dismissed with two or more years’ service, the employee will be able to bring an unfair dismissal claim within the Employment Tribunal. Therefore, it is often assumed that, if the qualifying length of service isn’t met, then there is no risk of a claim arising from… Read more »

Following Government proposals made in the Good Work Plan on employment rights, legislation has now been passed which means that the right to be given a written statement of particulars will be effective from the first day of employment, and most notably, will now apply to workers as well as employees. The changes are due… Read more »

Schools will be familiar with the DfE’s ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ and ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ documents. A recent update which will be published on 2nd September 2019 has further strengthened the requirements for schools and academies, and will bring about a new Keeping Children Safe in Education 2019 document. The document is… Read more »

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that term time workers’ holiday pay should not be on a pro-rata basis, but should instead be calculated using their average earnings over the preceding 12-week period. Lord Justice Nicholas Underhill stated that the working time regulations did not require leave for workers to be reduced to a pro-rata… Read more »

A Christian doctor, Dr Mackereth, told an Employment Tribunal that he was dismissed from his position as a benefits assessor by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) due to his religious beliefs. He argued that he was the victim of discrimination at work when he refused to refer to ‘a 6ft tall bearded man’… Read more »

The government has recently announced a review of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). The review will look to tackle some of the major challenges presented by the modern-day working world where far too many people are quitting work after a period of sickness absence and many people now work on freelance or short-term contracts (known as… Read more »

All employees, not just parents and carers, who have worked continuously for their employer for at least 26 weeks may apply to work flexibly. The application should be made in writing, stating their intended start date, details of how they wish to work, potential impact on the business with any possible solutions to overcome this… Read more »

Restrictive covenants are commonly incorporated into employment contracts in order to restrict a former employee’s actions post-termination and to protect the company’s legitimate business interests. Recently, the Supreme Court considered restrictive covenants that appeared to be wider than was reasonable and therefore potentially unenforceable. The question to be determined was whether words could be severed… Read more »

Since October 2011, under the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), temporary agency workers are entitled to the same basic working conditions after working for a period of 12 weeks, as if they have been employed directly by the hirer. In a recent case (London Underground Ltd (LUL) v Amissah), LUL were found liable for a breach… Read more »