There’s been plenty of bad press about zero hours contracts in recent years. In October we blogged about guidance published by BIS for employers on how zero hours contracts should be used. The guidance recommended that these contracts should make clear to the individual how work will be offered and that they are not obliged to accept work on every occasion....
According to the conciliation service, ACAS, there has been an increase in recent years in the number of deaths in England and Wales owing to “legal highs”, legal substances such as solvents, bath salts, incense or plant food which imitate the effects of illegal drugs when consumed....
Celtic Manor Resort in South Wales has inadvertently become the focus of media attention following its decision to recruit a Mr and Mrs Claus for its “Christmas Kingdom” attraction. The job advertisements stated that Father Christmas would be paid £12 per hour whilst Mrs Claus will receive the national minimum wage of £6.70 per hour, nearly half the rate paid to Father Christmas....
This is an update to our detailed report on holiday pay in July- Where are we on holiday pay?...
ACAS has released updated guidance on managing disability in the workplace 'Disability discrimination: key points for the workplace’. ACAS say that last year they had nearly 12,000 calls to the their helpline related to disability issues and received almost 3,000 disability discrimination employment tribunal cases....
If a client decides to outsource certain services for the first time, reassign those services to another contractor or bring those services back “in-house,” there may be a service provision change under TUPE. If however the activities performed relate to a one off event or task of short-term duration, TUPE will not apply....
In the recent case of Science Warehouse Ltd v Mills (UKEAT/0224/15), the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that it is not necessary for a claimant to go through the Early Conciliation process (“EC process”) again in respect of a new claim arising out of a related set of facts after the EC process has concluded and an ET1 presented to the Tribunal....
Earlier this year the Government announced that it would be introducing an apprenticeship levy on large employers as part of its pledge to create 3 million quality apprenticeships over the next five years....
City Link was placed into administration on 24 December 2014, resulting in the loss of over 2000 jobs. Employers planning to dismiss between 20 and 99 staff or more staff at one location must notify BIS in writing 30 days in advance. Employers planning to dismiss 100 or more staff at one location must give BIS 45 days’ written notice. Failure to notify BIS in this way is a criminal offence, for which the maximum fine is currently £5,000....
Earlier this month we blogged about the National Living Wage (“NLW”), which is expected to come into force in April 2016 for all workers aged 25 and above. Minimum hourly pay for those workers will increase from £6.70 to £7.20 and it’s envisaged that the NLW will increase over the coming years to reach a target of £9.00 per hour by 2020....
The recent case of MBNA Ltd v Jones demonstrates that differential treatment of employees in misconduct situations will not necessarily amount to an unfair dismissal. ...
We reported on the Government’s proposal to clamp down on false self employment last year. Since that announcement, the Ministry of Defence was, earlier this year, fined £1m for failing to seek assurance from a number of workers on their tax arrangements. The Department of Health was also fined £470,740 because two of its board members were off-payroll for over a year....
On 15 July 2015, the government published the Trade Union Bill 2015-16 and published a Consultation on tackling intimidation of non-striking workers to seek views on proposed reform of the law relating to picketing and protests in order to address intimidation and so-called "leverage tactics" by unions....
The response this week to the public sector exit payments consultation indicates that powers to introduce the cap will be included in the Enterprise Bill, with the details to be dealt with in subsequent regulations....
As the implementation of the mandatory National Living Wage in April 2016 looms nearer, employers are starting to assess the financial costs of this. However, despite the direct increased costs of salaries within the workforce, a number of benefits for employers may also result....
Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act requiring commercial organisations, with a certain minimum turnover, to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year came into force yesterday, 29 October 2015....
David Cameron has announced this week that gender pay gap reporting will be extended to include the public sector and bonuses....
The Prime Minister has announced this week that private and public sector employers have signed up to recruit graduates on a “name blind” basis....
14 cleaners allege that they are being subjected to disciplinary action over a letter they sent to Philip Hammond (Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) asking to discuss the Living Wage....
Back in May, we reported that the provisions in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 that make exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts unenforceable had come into force....