Landlords will welcome the High Court’s comments on when sanctions for non-compliance with the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) legislation are triggered. The tenant had argued that the section 21 notice served by the landlord was invalid, as, at the time of service, the landlord had not yet protected the deposit Read more…
A High Court case illustrates that it is not always in an employer’s best interests to immediately place an employee on garden leave, or seek injunctive relief against a departing employee when they leave to set up in competition. Although seeking an injunction is often the knee-jerk reaction of an Read more…
In what appears to be one of the few times that a judge has felt justified in allowing the inspection and imaging of employees’ computers, the High Court has recently ordered that an employer may instruct an independent computer expert to inspect and take images from the personal computers of Read more…
The High Court has granted an injunction to enforce a 12 month non-compete restrictive covenant which, if read literally, offered the claimant employer no protection at all. The court was prepared to read words into the covenant to produce a commercially sensible result. This case is a useful reminder of Read more…
The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has published details of its updated policy on enforcement of the national minimum wage, which includes the revised scheme for naming and shaming employers, and the new system of increased financial penalties of up to £20,000 for the most serious cases. If Read more…
Businesses should take note of an Employment Appeal decision confirming that covert recordings made by an employee of the public and private discussions of the panel at her grievance and disciplinary hearings could be admitted as evidence at a final hearing. Whether conversations that are covertly recorded are admissible in Read more…
Taxpayers will welcome confirmation by the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) that agreements with HMRC may be in full and final settlement without being explicitly labelled as such. However, if relying on this implicit status, taxpayers must carefully analyse the correspondence leading to, and comprising, the agreement to ensure that a Read more…
Businesses that use flexi-time schemes should take note of a recent EAT judgment that an employee, who was not paid on termination of employment for over 1000 extra hours worked under a flexi-hours scheme, had not suffered an unlawful deduction from wages. The EAT recognised that the poor drafting of Read more…
Two recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) cases highlight some of the issues a business needs to consider when contemplating dismissing an employee. The first case is a reminder to employers that contractual termination provisions must be clearly drafted and will be interpreted according to general contractual principles regarding repudiatory breach. Read more…
Changes to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/246) (TUPE) came into force on 31 January 2014. Key changes include the following: Transferees may carry out pre-transfer collective redundancy consultation. The rules on changes to terms and conditions and dismissals have been redrafted to bring the Read more…