The law on protection for “whistleblowers” is contained within the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. A couple of years ago the Government made some amendments to this Act, the most important of which was widely reported to be a new requirement that disclosures needed to be made in the “public Read more…
It is a legal requirement for all employees to be provided with a statement of employment particulars within the first two months of employment. For most employers this statement is either incorporated into or serves as the contract of employment. However, there are plenty of employers who do not get Read more…
The case of Lock and others v British Gas Trading Ltd has returned to an Employment Tribunal, which has ruled it necessary to add words to the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) to make it compliant with the EU Working Time Directive. You may recall that the European Court of Read more…
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill 2014-2015 (SBEEB) , currently going through the House of Lords, proposes a ban on employers using “exclusivity clauses” in zero hour contracts. The legislation will allow the Secretary of State to make regulations to ensure that employers do not try to circumvent the Read more…
It is common for bonus schemes to be conditional upon a number of factors including financial and personal performance, the employee not being under notice when the bonus is due and sometimes having a clean disciplinary record and a good attendance record. Is an employer free to choose whatever conditions Read more…
The Government has just announced the new maximum for the compensatory award in unfair dismissal claims and the new cap for a weeks’ pay to be used for calculating statutory redundancy pay and certain tribunal awards. From 6 April 2015, the cap on a weeks’ pay will rise to £475 Read more…
HR professionals will be familiar with the situation where new contracts of employment are sent out to employees which are never returned. This creates difficulties when the employer wants to rely on any changes in the new contract. The question then becomes: is the employee bound by the new terms? Read more…
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…
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…