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…
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…
Growth is about the entrepreneur, great products and innovation, strategy and opportunity, right? What has that got to do with HR and employment law support? Well let us flip the question around. Do disputes, litigation, workplace grievances, staff turnover, recruitment costs and damage to reputation act as a brake on Read more…
The law in relation to “whistleblowing” in the UK was introduced by the Government in 1998 to protect genuine whistleblowers in the workplace and thereby encourage a culture of openness and good governance. In practice many threatened “whistleblowing” claims tend to be more about an individual seeking to maximise their Read more…
In a further sign that the Government believes that the economy is in full blown recovery, the first real terms increase to the National Minimum Wage for a number of years has been announced (previous rises were largely in line with inflation). As a result, the adult NMW rate will rise 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…
The Ministry of Justice has published its “provisional management information” showing receipt of Employment Tribunal claims up to September 2013, in light of Employment Tribunal fees now being in effect for all claims issued after 29 July 2013. It was envisaged that there would be a surge in claims in Read more…
A potentially redundant employee will lose their right to a statutory redundancy payment if they unreasonably refuse an offer of suitable alternative employment made by their employer. In the recent case of Devon Primary Care Trust v Readman the Court of Appeal confirmed the correct test to use when assessing 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…
There has been a lot of discussion over recent months about the Government’s proposal to replace the commonly used compromise agreement with a “settlement agreement”, but not everyone is clear about what the difference is and why the Government is proposing a change. So what is the difference? Compromise Agreements Read more…