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Queens Speech – employment law proposals
The Queen’s Speech on Wednesday 8th May unveiled a number of announcements aimed at helping employers, including a National Insurance Contributions Bill and a “Deregulation Bill” which will set out to reduce excessive red tape for businesses. The speech, which is delivered to mark the state opening of Parliament, set out legislation that will be [...]
Case Law – Fair dismissal of foreign worker who could not prove right to work in the UK
Winful v Whitbread Group plc This employment tribunal case arose from a situation in which the employer felt that it had no option but to dismiss a foreign worker who lost her right to work in the UK. Background Mrs Winful, a Ghanaian married to an EEA national, worked for a large company. The company [...]
Case Law – Dismissal within the band of reasonable responses?
JJ Food Service Ltd v Kefil. Can it be reasonable to dismiss a manager with an intimidating management style with no warning on the basis that someone in his position should know that if he didn’t change his ways he would be sacked? This is what the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) had to decide in this [...]
Employee-Shareholder contracts finally accepted
The House of Lords has finally accepted the proposal to introduce employee-shareholder contracts after the Government made a number of concessions in response to the Lords blocking the relevant provisions in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill. The Government proposes to introduce employee-shareholder contracts, under which individuals would receive shares from their employer of between £2,000 [...]
Employment Tribunal Fees – latest update
The Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 now published sets out the level of fees. Fee levels are unchanged from the information issued following consultation, i.e. a £250 issue fee, and a £950 hearing fee for most types of claim (including unfair dismissal, discrimination and whistleblowing) whilst straightforward claims such as [...]
Commencement Dates Announced
BIS issued a press release containing commencement dates for some of the changes introduced by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which has now received Royal Assent. On 25 June 2013 the following will come into force:- the new tribunal procedural rules (final version not yet available) changes to whistleblowing laws (introducing a public [...]
Employment query series
Every month we answer a common question based on what we often get asked by our clients. Given the holiday season is almost upon us we have been receiving many calls regarding holiday and entitlements. Hence here we have selected a few of the most common questions concerning holiday entitlement. Q1 – Are employees entitled [...]
National Minimum Wage increase announced
Calls from business leaders to freeze the NMW have been rejected by the Government. An announcement on wage levels had been delayed for a month, prompting speculation that ministers were considering leaving the rates unchanged. Unfortunately for employers this wasn’t the case. Therefore, in October the rates will increase by: 12p to £6.31 an hour for adults (21+) 5p [...]
Legislation changes in April
From 6th April Statutory sick pay is increased The standard rate of statutory sick pay increases from £85.85 to £86.70 per week. Collective redundancy consultation period is reduced to 45 days The minimum period for collective redundancy consultation is reduced from 90 to 45 days. Under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, employers [...]
Case Law – Obesity and Disability
Walker v Sita Information Networking Computing Ltd In considering whether a person is disabled, should the focus be upon the cause of the person’s symptoms or upon their effect? Their effect, said the EAT in this case. Background The claimant, Mr Walker, brought a claim of disability discrimination. At the tribunal, the preliminary issue of [...]
