Employment Law Lens: Whistleblowing for Charity Trustees
Focus on…Whistleblowing for Charity Trustees The recent decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in MacLennan v British Psychological Society is important for a couple of reasons. First, it confirms that workers are protected from suffering detrimental treatment...
Employment Law Lens: Protected Characteristics
What personal characteristics are deemed worthy of protection? The Equality Act 2010 recognises a defined list of personal attributes that the law currently recognises as requiring statutory protection: sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion and...
Employment Law Lens: Focus on…Trade Unions and Industrial Action
Rail workers & bus drivers; Royal Mail staff & postal workers; teachers & university staff; doctors & nurses; refuse collectors; civil servants; and even criminal defence barristers – there are few industries that have been untouched by strike action...
Employment Law Lens: Focus on…Flexible Working & Switching Off
According to certain newspapers, Labour’s new Employment Rights Bill will grant employees the right to DEMAND a four-day working week. Except that, no, it won’t. Employees will have the right to REQUEST a shorter working week, but they already can under...
Employment Law Lens: Unfair Dismissal & Probation Periods
Focus on.... Unfair Dismissal and Probation Periods One of the cornerstones of Labour’s new Employment Rights Bill is to grant employees protection from unfair dismissal from the first day they start work, rather than requiring a minimum two years’ continuous service...
Employment Law Lens: Sexual Harassment
Focus on.... Sexual Harassment This week we report on two significant developments in the law relating to sexual harassment. The first is the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, which comes into force imminently on 26 October 2024....
Employment Law Lens: Labour’s Employment Rights Bill.
‘The biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation’ – that’s the bold ambition of Labour’s new Employment Rights Bill, set to be published this Thursday, 10 October 2024. Whilst there’s always plenty to talk about in the field of HR and employment law, it’s...
Employment Law Lens: ‘Fire & Rehire’.
In this new series from TJD Law, we’ll be shining the spotlight on a different hot topic of employment law each fortnight, and with Labour’s sweeping employment law reforms, there’s certainly plenty to talk about. We’ll be revealing the truth behind the...
Turning the Tables
Following a number of high profile sexual harassment scandals, (#timesup, #metoo); the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has published a report highlighting the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace and the widespread failure by employers to adequately...
Something for Father’s Day
The House of Commons' Women and Equalities Committee has published a report, ‘Fathers and the workplace’ (http://bit.ly/fathers_workplace), making a number of proposals to improve fathers' rights at work. Building upon the introduction of shared parental leave, the...
Duty of care on giving a reference
Employers are generally aware that, when giving a reference, they owe a duty both to the employee and to any prospective new employer who may rely upon it. The employer must take reasonable care to ensure that the reference is fair, accurate and not misleading. The...
Taxing Times for Notice Pay
There is currently some uncertainty around the tax treatment of payments in lieu of notice (PILONs). This can depend upon whether the relevant contract of employment includes a PILON clause (in which case the payment must usually be taxed as earnings), or there is no...
Pay Rise Time!
From April 2018, the National Minimum Wage will be increasing to the following rates: Apprentices: Increase from £3.50 to £3.70 per hour; 16-17 year olds: Increase from £4.05 to £4.20 per hour; 18-20 year olds: Increase from £5.60 to £5.90 per hour; 21-24 year olds:...
More holiday pay headaches
Employers struggling with the recent changes to holiday pay calculations have at least been able to find some comfort in the Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014, which limited claims for back pay to a maximum of 2 years. Unfortunately, the legality of...
Government Publishes Guidance on Dress Codes
In 2016, receptionist Nicola Thorp was sent home on her first day of work at a corporate finance company in London because she refused to wear shoes with two to four-inch high heels. She launched an online petition calling for the law to be changed and garnered more...
Time is Money – when does dismissal actually occur?
It is important to have clarity on the precise date when an employee is dismissed. This can affect things like notice entitlement, unfair dismissal rights, redundancy pay, or pension benefits. A dismissal must be communicated to be effective. But what if there is a...
Compensation Increases
On 6 April 2018, there will be an increase in the compensation limits and minimum awards that are payable under employment legislation. The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will rise from £80,541 to £83,682 (although this is still capped at the value...
Workplace Pensions – “We’re All In”
That’s what the advert claimed (before being replaced by the one with the big furry monster at a reported cost of £8.5m). But not everyone was ‘in’. The Pension Regulator has recently made its first prosecution for an offence under section 3(2) of the Pensions Act...
Redundancy costs just got more expensive
Many employment rights depend upon the calculation of “a week’s pay”, using the rules set out in sections 221 to 227 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It has long been accepted practice that employer pension contributions should be excluded from the calculation of a...