Lord`s Sugar has lost his bid to recover £50,000 worth of costs from a previous Apprentice winner, Stella English. Stella raised a claim for constructive dismissal which she lost at Tribunal in April . The original tribunal said the case ‘should never have been brought` which was reiterated by Lord Sugar`s lawyers however, the East London Tribunal Service rejected the bid and ruled she should n...
There are great opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs and companies to make use of the dynamic and open business climate existing in the UK, as well as a highly skilled workforce. In addition a transparent tax regime, the familiarity of the English language and trusted legal and accounting systems makes the UK an appealing destination for many foreign companies....
A club-based collaboration platform for entrepreneurs and SMEs, Business Biscotti Gold, has been formally launched in the Thames Valley by the Mayor of Wokingham Borough Council, Councillor Ulla Karin Clark, with Clarkslegal chosen to provide expert legal support to members....
In celebration of our centenary year, five of our Cardiff office are running the Cardiff Half Marathon, on Sunday 6th October in support of our nominated charities Alexander Devine`s Children`s Hospice, Cardiff Foodbank and Contact the Elderly....
In an age discrimination case (Osaba v Herfordshire Police), whilst conducting a staff reorganisation, the employer created a points-based matrix to determine which employees would be selected for redundancy. It was claimed that the employer had deliberately manipulated the matrix to ensure that he, by reason of his age, would be dismissed. The tribunal found that the employer`s handling of this...
The established legal position is that for employees with no normal working hours, when calculating statutory holiday pay, employers do not have to include compulsory overtime when calculating holiday pay (under the Working Time Regulations). However, any overtime that is guaranteed to the employee under their contract of employment must be included in the calculation. Of course, it is open to t...
The European Commission ("EC") adopted the Single Market Act which sets out a series of measures to boost the European economy and create jobs. One of these measures is a review of the existing public procurement processes. The aim is to create a simpler and more flexible procedure for contracting authorities and to provide easier access to contract opportunities for companies, particularly SMEs and micro-businesses. The EC also wants to implement policy that fosters demand for environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and innovative goods, services and works....
Further to our blog on 26 July 2013, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has managed to get permission to appeal against the decision of the EAT in the Woolworths collective redundancy case. This is welcome news for employers, as it looked rather doubtful at one stage that BIS would be able to mount an appeal at all. The EAT`s decision in May of this year radically changed t...
The EAT has held that an employer`s failure to provide an impartial grievance appeal process can amount to a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence and form the basis of a constructive dismissal claim. In Blackburn v Aldi Stores Ltd UKEAT/0185/12, the same manager who heard the grievance hearing, also heard the appeal, dismissing the appeal following a 20 minute hearing. The employee...
As you may be aware compensation can be awarded for breaches of the Data Protection Act (DPA). How such compensation should be calculated has recently been considered by the Court of Appeal in Halliday v Creation Consumer Finance ([2013] EWCA Civ 333). In this case Mr Halliday purchased a television on a consumer credit agreement provided by Creation. Mr Halliday sued Creation in the County Co...
Boris Johnson has plans for a fast-track visa to attract the world`s "best and brightest" technology experts and fashion designers to London in proposals that he has submitted to the Home Office. The aim is to make it easier for exceptional applicants in these fields to get jobs in the capital. Supporting the proposal Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse emphasised that individual talent is essential to th...
Two candidates who attended interviews at Currys have complained about being made to dance at their job interviews. One apparently had to dance to Dizzie Rascal. The other said he had to dance in a robotic-style to a Daft Punk song which he compared to a scene from BBC`s The Office and described the experience as "humiliating". Whilst using various recruitment assessment tools at interviews ca...
Thank you to all who participated in our charity golf day on Friday 6 September at Reading Golf Club. The event was a huge success in raising money for our three nominated charities, Alexander Devine`s Childrens Hospice, Cardiff Foodbank and Contact the Elderly. Congratulations to Lloyds TSB who won the best team prize, while Cameron Frazer won best individual playing for Area Sq, closely followed by Ian Jackson of Lloyds TSB. Paul Etherington of Grant Thornton won the raffle for a lesson with Reading`s professional, Joe Templer....
Following on from the proposal for a new employee shareholder contract, which finally came into force in 1 September 2013, the Government has now produced guidance on employee shareholder status....
The Government consulted on reforming the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 ("TUPE") earlier this year. Yesterday the Government published its response....
It is well known that there is a blanket exemption from VAT for land and property. Landlords and landowners will be all too familiar with the requirement to opt to tax land and property, in order to bring income and outgoings related to property within the VAT provisions....
Litigation is sometimes criticised as slow and expensive. The ‘Jackson Reforms`, which came into force earlier this year, are intended to get to grip with these issues...
Employers who fail to pay the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will be publicly named and shamed under revamped plans to make it easier to clamp down on rogue businesses....
Buddy`s February article gave details on the proposed major changes to Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/246) (TUPE); further to this it is now being reported that the changes are planned to be introduced in January 2014 and will not come into force in October 2013 as originally intended....
Following a review of John Lewis`s payment practices, it was discovered that it had been miscalculating holiday pay for the past seven years. John Lewis had been calculating holiday payments based on contracted weekly hours of employees. It failed to take into account the higher hourly wage rate of employees working on Sundays and bank holidays, as required by the Working Time Regulations 1998, w...