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....
Countries within the Commonwealth are subject to a diversity of legal frameworks, rules and regulations. Certain organisations (such as central and local government) based in countries within the European Union (“EU”) are subject to stringent legislation in terms of how a public contract should be procured. For organisations based outside of the EU, the legal framework may be less specific and thought therefore needs to be given as to the process adopted for procuring a public contract....
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....
One of the most interesting procurement decisions to come out of the court in recent months is that of Woods Building Services v Milton Keynes Council. ...
It is common to see clauses in commercial contracts which seek to fix the damages which will be payable if one party breaches their contractual obligations. Sometimes the figures will be broadly what the parties would expect the financial loss caused by the breach to be. In other cases, the figures will be widely excessive and the suspicion will be that the person drafting the contract was seeking to impose an additional incentive on the other party to comply with the terms of the contract to avoid being heavily penalised....
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....
It is common, particularly following termination of an agency agreement, for agents and principals to become involved in disputes over the commission which the agent is entitled to be paid. ...
The six month transition period for the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (“CDM 2015”) ended on 6 October 2015 and this signifies the dawn of a new focus on design as the key to health and safety operation on construction projects. ...
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....
The EAT has confirmed that an on-call night worker who lives at his place of work is only entitled to the National Minimum Wage for the time he is actually awake and carrying out his employment duties....