Article Category: Employment Law & HR – Insight & Opinion

After the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) hearing earlier this week, which concerned an employee who was an engineer in Romania, the judges said that the employer had a right to check that the employee was not completing his work and that he had breached the company’s rules by sending personal messages on the company’s  time…. Read more »

This week ACAS have reported that workplace bullying is growing in the UK and that many people are too scared to speak out about the issue. They have received approximately 20,000 calls in the past year related to bullying and harassment, with some callers reporting that workplace bullying caused them to self-harm or consider suicide…. Read more »

Business Minister Nick Boles has announced today that 115 companies have failed to pay their workers the national minimum wage and they’ve now been named and shamed in a list published on the gov.uk website. Retailer Monsoon Accessorize Ltd has topped the list for failing to pay £104,508 to 1,438 workers. We understand Monsoon have… Read more »

As employers (and employment lawyers) continue to grapple with the intricacies of the shared parental leave legislation, the Chancellor yesterday announced plans to extend the shared parental leave scheme to working grandparents. Under the new rules, both parents and grandparents will potentially be able to divide the statutory shared parental leave pay between them. This… Read more »

The effect of smoking appears to be a constant issue in the news. On 1 October 2015 further limitations will be placed on smokers when it will become illegal to smoke in a vehicle in the presence of any one under the age of 18. We have considered the potential impact of smoking in the… Read more »

As England get off to a great start to the Rugby World Cup, is your company prepared for a potential increase in the number of ‘sick days’ following or on match days? Have you considered how you may manage several requests for early finishes with the promise of “I’ll make the time up”? We’ve set… Read more »

Is it unfair to carry out an employee dismissal for making offensive and inappropriate comments on social media, even if that person claims the comments were not true? No, said the Employment Appeals Tribunal In the case of British Waterways Board v Smith. In this case, the British Waterways Board dismissed an employee after they… Read more »

Often we’ll get told by prospective business clients that they have a happy workforce with no employment law issues and so they don’t need to pay for employment law & HR advice. We understand their logic. But often a reactive approach to employment disputes can be expensive and time consuming. In this article we discuss… Read more »

The heat is rising and summer is in the air. As Brits, we like to make the most of the good weather during its rare decision to grace us with its presence. Many of us will hit the beaches and parks, but many others will be stuck in stuffy offices with no air-con. Your staff… Read more »

Employee disputes hit the headlines recently with the BBC’s dismissal of Jeremy Clarkson. While few disputes are as high profile as this there are some important points to note for all employers. In particular, that getting to the bottom of the situation swiftly in order to make the right decision is critical. This critical process… Read more »