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…
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…
We may not think so, but an increasing number of companies are taking steps to prevent their employees from emailing out of hours. In recent years, particularly with the development of new smartphone technology, there has been increased pressure on staff and an expectation that employees will continue to engage with Read more…
It is a common misconception that you are either, self-employed, employed or unemployed. But the wonderful and mysterious thing that is employment law recognises another category of employment status: the worker. Employees are the most protected category and self-employed people have virtually no employment rights. Indeed it is a strange Read more…
In addition to our blog on Employment Tribunal statistics, the BIS has also conducted a survey on Tribunal users and applications received in 2013. The document is rather large at 280 pages, however if you would like to read the full report, it is at httpss://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/316704/bis-14-708-survey-of-employment-tribunal-applications-2013.pdf. The most interesting findings Read more…
Employment Tribunal statistics for the first quarter of 2014 have been published today. In light of the introduction of Employment Tribunal fees last year, these statistics have been eagerly awaited. You may recall from our previous blog that the statistics for the period from October to December 2013 showed a Read more…
The Office for National Statistics has published its figures for sickness absence levels across the UK in its annual report for the period October 2012 to September 2013. Employers may be surprised to note that according to the latest statistics, a total of 131 million days were lost last year due Read more…
An employer’s duty to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled employee only arises where the employer knows or is reasonably expected to know that the employee has a disability. Assessing whether an employee is disabled can be difficult, particularly in a case of mental illness. In the recent Court of Read more…
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) has given her key opinion this week on surrogacy arrangements and the rights of both the birth mother and the employee benefitting from a surrogacy arrangement in respect of Maternity Leave and other surrounding benefits. In February 2012, the Newcastle Read more…