The Ministry of Justice has published tribunal statistics for April – June 2018. Readers will be aware that tribunal caseloads have increased steadily since the abolition of tribunal fees in July 2017. That trend continues in the latest report. ...
As recently reported in the media, the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) has issued its first Enforcement Notice under the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA 2018”) against AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd (“AIQ”), a Canadian data analytics company. AIQ was associated with targeted advertising for the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign during the Brexit referendum. ...
In a judgment published this week in the case of Mutombo-Mpania v Angard Staffing Solutions, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld a decision that - an employee who suffered from essential hypertension but had advised his employer that he had no disability was not, on the evidence he provided, a disabled person; and the employer could not reasonably have been expected to know that he was disabled. ...
It appears that Morrisons is the latest of the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets (so called due to their dominance of the market share) to face a string of Equal Pay claims. Whilst Tesco still holds the lion’s share, controlling 27.4% of the available market, Morrisons’ not so insignificant 10.2% keeps it firmly rooted as one of the most influential chains in the UK. The claimants’ representatives are well versed in this matter as they are already overseeing legal action on behalf of 30,000 employees at ASDA, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. ...
In a recent EAT case, the claimant had decided to move from one department to another, both within the employer’s business. She had received a conditional job offer from the new department and wrote to her employer stating ‘please accept one month’s notice from the above date’. Her conditional offer was later withdrawn and she asked to retract, what she called, her notice of resignation. The employer refused stating that she had resigned....
Almost every job application in the modern world will ask for a reference to accompany an application. It is an important tool to establish whether a candidate is suitable for the role they are applying for. ...
Thank you to all those that came to support our Charity Food Truck Rally in Covent Garden on Thursday 6th September. We were so lucky that the sun shone for much of the day!...
Last year, we wrote about Nestlé’s decade-plus efforts to achieve EU trade mark registration for the three-dimensional shape of its Kit Kat chocolate bar (certainly very distinctive here in the UK!), and setbacks in 2016 both with an adverse ruling from the EU General Court and with the UK High Court ruling against UK trade mark protection for the shape. We also noted that Nestlé’s nemesis in all of this has been Mondelēz International, a group whose brands include Cadbury....
British universities have called on the government to bring back the post study work visa which would allow overseas students to stay in the country to work for up to two years after graduation. The scheme was scrapped in 2012 and strict post study work rules may have had a significant impact on prospective applicants from certain countries, including India....
In North East London NHS Foundation Trust v Zhou, the EAT has decided that it may not necessarily be unreasonable conduct for solicitors to have filed an incomplete claim form....
In a recent High Court decision, the Court reaffirmed some important considerations when dealing with alleged breaches of contract by an employer. ...
A drone is an unmanned flying aircraft used to collect data. Drones are closely associated with innovation in digital technology and are already used by a wide range of industries and the public sector. As we identified in our article in June 2018, Drones have begun to change the way the construction industry operates. They are used to survey sites, both at the start of planning to produce baseline models and during construction to track progress. They can also be used to monitor security and health and safety. ...
Clarkslegal are delighted to announce that Antony Morris, David Rintoul and Michael Sippitt have been inducted to The Legal 500 Hall of Fame, as elite leading lawyers. ...
Augmented reality (“AR”) is becoming more and more prominent. Put simply, AR is technology that superimposes a computer-generated image onto a user’s view of the real world....
Fallopia Japonica, otherwise known as Japanese knotweed, has always been seen as an aggressive nuisance to property owners but the recent case of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited v Stephen Williams and Robin Waistell [2018] EWCA Civ 1514 has now confirmed that the presence of Japanese knotweed is also an actionable nuisance. This case involves some knotweed on Network Rail’s land that was within 7 metres of the two claimants’ properties....
This article highlights three recent court cases of importance to the wider construction industry....
From meal delivery kit businesses to meat substitutes, investors are accelerating their bets on the food tech sector. According to Pitchbook, investors in the US have poured a record-breaking $2 billion into the sector so far this year, relative to $1.5 billion in each of the previous two years....
The Government is facing judicial review proceedings over an exemption in the Data Protection Act 2018 that prevents citizens from accessing their immigration data. Two campaign groups, the Open Rights Group and the3million, have threatened legal action since the provision was introduced into the Data Protection Bill, and have now launched a legal challenge with the aim of seeing the provision removed from the statute....
A new YouGov survey of over 1800 people in the UK has found that only 6% are working the traditional working hours of 9am-5pm. 58% of those surveyed said they would like to start work earlier than 9am if it meant they could go home earlier....
It is good news that the Prime Minister is on a mission to emphasise the opportunities of more trade with Africa. ...