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...
On Yer Bike
As those well-intentioned, ‘get fit’ resolutions already begin to wane, we thought we’d try and give you a boost by kicking off this year with a couple of news stories connected (loosely) by jobs requiring a love of two wheels. Moreover, they both concern issues of...
The cloak of redundancy…not so invisible after all.
This month we’re talking about ‘cloaks’. Firstly, a cautionary tale for employers (and employment lawyers) about the risk of trying to conceal discrimination through a redundancy process. We also then pose a question about whether some businesses might be using...
Unfair Dismissal – Exploding the Myth of Gross Misconduct
It is a widely held view that, in the absence of previous warnings, employees can only be dismissed on grounds of conduct if it amounts to ‘gross misconduct’. The two cases reported this month demonstrate that this simply isn’t the case. They also serve as a reminder...
Good Work Plan
Back in April 2018, we reported some of the key proposals of the Taylor Report as part of our Guide to the Gig Economy. These proposals are slowly working their way into legalisation (when Brexit allows them a look-in) and this year looks set to introduce some...
Flexible working…but at what cost?
As the employment market moves towards increasing flexibility, a YouGov survey has reported that just 6% of the UK work traditional 9am-5pm hours. Spearheading the charge, Accountancy firm PwC has recently announced a flexible working scheme that would allow staff to...
Suspension Pitfalls
In cases such as Gogay v Hertfordshire County Council (2000) and Crawford v Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (2012), the Court of Appeal has made it clear that suspension must not be a ‘knee-jerk reaction’. Failure to consider whether suspension is...
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...
Naming and Shaming
Parties involved in employment litigation are acutely aware that the possibility of adverse publicity can provide a strong incentive to resolve a dispute. But if a negotiated resolution cannot be achieved, the risk of negative publicity may also play a part in...
Additional risk on a TUPE transfer
HMRC has advised that, with effect from 2 July 2018, where there has been a TUPE transfer of employees, all national minimum wage liabilities, including any penalties, will now be enforced against the transferee employer. Employees themselves have always been able to...
A New Tool for Protecting Confidential Information
The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 came into force on 9 June 2018, implementing the EU Trade Secrets Directive (2016/244/EU). Much of the Directive is already incorporated into UK case law relating to the protection of confidential information,...
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...