Most employers know that if they breach the laws which govern workplace relations then they can expect to receive claims for unfair dismissal, discrimination or breach of contract (even if there is no written contract). Many employers will also have experienced personal injury claims brought by employees who have suffered Read more…
Happy New Year to all of our regular readers. The General Election will take place on 7 May 2015. Experienced HR and employment law practitioners will know that General Elections matter to employment law. Over recent years successive Governments have made major changes to the balance of employment rights and Read more…
Last month I posted a blog on the ground breaking Judgment of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the case of Bear Scotland v Fulton and others on holiday pay and overtime. Since then there have been two significant developments. Firstly, the Unite union, which represents the claimants in the Hertel (UK) Ltd Read more…
Following the decision in Dyer v London Ambulance NHS Trust this week, a case which confirmed that it was unreasonable to expect an employer to ban its employees from wearing perfume or aerosol deodorants for fear of setting off a disabled employee’s severe allergic reaction to aerosols, we explore some Read more…
Employers often find it difficult to deal with intermittent sickness absence but matters can be made much more complicated if the employee off sick is disabled. This is a reoccurring problem in practice so I am using this blog to analyse a recent interesting case on an employer’s legal obligations Read more…
This year has seen a revolution in the law on what should count as holiday pay. These unwelcome developments for employers could result in a number of Tribunal claims being pursued by employees across the country. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) yesterday delivered its Judgment in cases of Bear Scotland Read more…
An employee’s absence from the workplace is generally not a welcome prospect for employers because of the inevitable disruption that it causes both in terms of business continuity and the extra pressure on other staff members. However, bereavement leave is one type of leave which no employee really wants to Read more…
In an advancing technological society, it has become increasingly apparent that employers are choosing to more closely monitor their employees’ activities whilst at work, sometimes choosing to extend this even outside of the workplace. The fact that strict employee monitoring is viewed by some as immoral does not mean that Read more…
Several important employment law changes will be implemented on 1 October 2014. These changes are as follows: National minimum wage. The new national minimum wage rates for all workers will be as follows: Standard Adult rate: £6.50 Development rate: £5.13 Young workers rate: £3.79 Apprenticeship rate: £2.73 Power to order equal Read more…
Picture this: before they leave for a competing business, a valued employee downloads and prints off a list of all of your key customer and business contact details and takes it with them. Now picture this: before they leave for a competing business, a valued employee connects with all of Read more…