Article Category: Employment Law & HR – Insight & Opinion

Mr Lone was dismissed for gross misconduct from his position following a complaint made by a female colleague. The colleague complained of unwanted messages and emails sent by the Claimant. Following the dismissal, a professional conduct panel for the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) recommended to the Secretary of State that a prohibition order be put… Read more »

A collapsing Oldham law firm, Broadway Legal Limited trading as Broadway Solicitors, who made redundancy announcements to its staff by text message have been ordered by an Employment Tribunal to make a protective award of 90 days’ pay to one of its employees.  What happened in the redundancy case? The Claimant, Mr Evans, brought a… Read more »

Our requirements for a particular role have changed and we need someone with different qualifications. Can I redeploy the employee in that role to another site or make them redundant if they refuse?  This is potentially a redundancy situation; the employer’s need for a particular skill set has changed and the need for the kind… Read more »

The current position is that if an employee is absent due to ill health reasons before and then during what was pre-booked annual leave, they should, as far as the Working Time Directive is concerned, have the right to reschedule the holiday for a later date. If that employee remains off sick until the end… Read more »

The number of people making claims for disability discrimination in the Employment Tribunal has soared by 37% compared to last year. With Employment Tribunal claims in general rising only 4% that means the number of disability discrimination claims has risen more than eight times faster than the growth of all tribunal claims. Why? What’s caused… Read more »

In a recent Court of Appeal case, an employee who worked as a cashier in a wine wholesale business for over 10 years was dismissed on the day the business was due to transfer to new ownership. The reason for dismissal, as stated in the dismissal letter, was that company was ceasing to trade due… Read more »

In the recent case of Hein v Holzkamm GmbH and Co KG, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) indicated that voluntary overtime should not be factored into holiday pay. The ECJ stated ‘given its exceptional and unforeseeable nature, remuneration received for overtime does not, in principle, form part of remuneration’. This decision now casts doubt… Read more »

Sickness absence can be extremely expensive, potentially disruptive and can have a significant impact on the productivity and welfare of colleagues due to increased workloads. A good Occupational Health (“OH”) specialist can be the key for the effective absence management to the benefit of the employer and, often the employee. What should you expect from… Read more »

The recent Employment Tribunal case, Mrs N Town v The Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, has raised questions amongst employers on the effects of changing a person’s role when they are pregnant, ill or injured and how this might result in discrimination claims when decisions are not considered carefully or justified. The background… Read more »

In November 2016, the government launched a review of employment practices. The main purpose was to consider the implications of new models of working, including those used in the GIG economy, on the rights and responsibilities of workers, as well as on employer freedoms and obligations. For this, an independent review was undertaken and published… Read more »