Posted in UKPaul Griffin, Amanda Sanders and Joanna MacKenzie consider how to handle disciplinary and dismissal matters, and the additional requirements that employers should consider in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the future workplace.
This article was originally published in PLC Magazine
The PDF is available:
Posted in UKJoanna MacKenzie has written an article on hybrid working and issues that employers need to consider before implementing new ways of working.
This article was originally published in PLC Magazine
The PDF is available:
Posted in Coronavirus, UK“Long Covid” (or “post-Covid-19 syndrome”) is a condition where people who have contracted Covid-19 continue to experience symptoms for weeks or even months after their initial infection. It affects individuals differently, and symptoms can range from fatigue, headaches, loss of taste or smell, lasting fever or anxiety, to respiratory difficulties, muscle weakness, blood clots and even organ damage.
The Office for National Statistics in the UK reported in April 2021 that an estimated 1.1 million people in the UK had symptoms associated with long Covid, with over two-thirds of these individuals having had (or suspected to have had) Covid-19 at … Continue Reading
Posted in Contracts, General, UKIn the case of Price v Powys County Council, the Employment Appeal Tribunal have upheld the tribunal’s decision that there is no sex discrimination where an employer pays a man on shared parental leave less than a woman on adoption leave.
In the UK, Shared Parental Leave (SPL) provides flexibility for parents to take leave to care for their child. Eligible parents can take up to 50 weeks SPL in the first year after the birth of their child, or in the first year after their child’s placement for adoption, with up to 37 weeks of Shared Parental Pay … Continue Reading
Posted in Coronavirus, UKIn order to obtain a statutory defence against illegal working, employers should check the right to work of all employees’ original documents in person on or before their employment commences. In the absence of a correct check and in the event that an illegal working issue arises, this will assist the employer in avoiding civil liability. As a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the UK’s Home Office introduced a concession under which employers have temporarily not been required to see an employee’s original document in person in order to carry out a compliant right to work check, and instead can … Continue Reading
Posted in Contracts, UKThe Supreme Court handed down its decision in the joined cases of Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad and another (T/A Clifton House Residential Home) which concern an employee’s right to the national minimum wage for periods of time when they are required to remain at home on their shift and/or residential care workers who ‘sleep in’ but they are not actually performing some specific activity. The Supreme Court dismissed the two appeals, which will be welcomed by employers in the care sector, providing them with more certainty. In doing so the judges also reviewed previous cases … Continue Reading
Posted in Contracts, UKThe Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has handed down its judgement looking at a workers right to claim holiday pay.
The claimant, Mr. Smith, worked for the respondent, Pimlico Plumbers between 2005 and 2011, and was considered throughout the six year period to be self-employed independent contractor. As such, he had no entitlement to paid annual leave, although he took periods of unpaid leave. In 2011, the claimant alleged that the respondent had fundamentally breached the contract and so terminated the contract, claiming for, amongst other things, holiday pay. The initial hearing considered the claimants status, and, having been held by … Continue Reading
Last week the Home Office published a series of changes to the Immigration Rules, many of which will take effect on 6 April 2021.
Graduate Route
In welcome news to many UK employers, the Home Office is introducing a new Graduate route into the UK (under a new section in the rules, called Appendix Graduate). Whilst UK graduates will need to meet a points threshold (in line with the new points based system), applicants will meet this by satisfying the essential criteria to the immigration route: (1) successfully completing their studies with an approved institutions; (2) obtaining a bachelor’s degree, … Continue Reading
Posted in UKWe’re pleased to report what looks like some good news for pension schemes on data protection.
The European Commission has published a draft decision as to the “adequacy” of the UK’s data protection laws. If the draft decision is formally approved by EU Member States, this would allow personal data to flow from the EU or EEA to the UK uninterrupted after a temporary arrangement put in place at the start of this year expires. This is the so-called “data bridge” agreed as part of the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which will last until the end of April or … Continue Reading
In addition to the measures referred to in the Budget which are aimed at addressing the immediate challenges of COVID-19 and putting the UK’s public finances on a sustainable footing in the medium term, the Government stated in the Budget that it recognised the importance of creating the conditions for an investment-led recovery driven by private sector growth. In view of this, in the Budget, the Government has made a number of immigration policy decisions which it regards as modernising the UK’s immigration system to help the UK attract and retain the most highly skilled, globally mobile talent – particularly … Continue Reading
Posted in Coronavirus, UKIn the budget on 3 March 2021, the Chancellor announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the CJRS) would be extended until the end of September 2021. The CJRS was due to end on 30 April 2021, but with many restrictions (in particular in the hospitality and leisure sectors) not being fully lifted until June at the earliest, the Chancellor was under pressure to extend the scheme. There are however changes to eligibility criteria and contributions under the scheme.
From 30 April 2021 until 30 June employees who are placed on furlough under the CJRS will continue to receive 80% … Continue Reading
Posted in Discrimination and harassment, UKA recent decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in Allay (UK) Limited v Mr S Gehlen provides useful guidance to employers seeking to rely on the “reasonable steps” defence to a claim of discrimination, harassment or victimisation.
An employer can be liable for acts of discrimination, harassment and victimisation carried out by its employees in the course of employment, even if the employer was not aware of those acts (section 109(1) of the Equality Act 2010). However, there is a potential defence available to an employer under section 109(4) of the Equality Act 2010 if it can show that … Continue Reading
Posted in Contracts, UKThe Supreme Court has today handed down its decision in Uber BV and others v Aslam and others, upholding the Employment Tribunal decision that the drivers are ‘workers’ within the meaning of S.230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) and the equivalent definitions in the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (NMWA 1998) and the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998).
There are three levels of employment status in the UK: self-employed, worker and employee. Self-employed individuals are not entitled to the same employment protections as workers and employees, and so, for example, are not entitled to protection … Continue Reading
Posted in Coronavirus, UKThe current national lockdown in the UK has imposed school and childcare closures for all but those children of essential key workers. Even prior to lockdown measures, many children were being sent home regularly to isolate, due to a positive case of Covid-19 in their class or school bubble. This has inevitably left many working parents struggling to balance their work with caring responsibilities, whether this is balancing duties while working from home, or managing childcare in order to go into the workplace if working from home is impossible.
To date, there are currently no emergency provisions in place for … Continue Reading
The Collective Redundancies Directive (98/59/EC) (the Directive) sets out consultation requirements for employers where a set number of redundancies are contemplated within a specified time frame, being either 30 or 90 days depending on the member state concerned.
In the UK, the Directive is implemented through the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA). Under section 188, TULRCA requires employers to consult on its redundancy proposal with those affected, where it proposes to dismiss 20 or more employees at one establishment within a reference period of 90 days or less. The required consultation period is either 30 (20-99 … Continue Reading
Posted in UKAt 11pm on December 31, 2020, the Brexit implementation period ended and the last-minute trade deal agreed by UK and EU negotiators took effect through the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). What does this mean for UK pensions and what steps should employers and trustees be taking?
What is the impact on UK pensions law?
UK pensions law remains basically unchanged following the end of the implementation period and the TCA coming into force. It is not expected to change significantly in the short term.
For example, any trustees or employers hoping this may spell the end to the … Continue Reading
On 31 December the UK parliament implemented the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020. This makes provision to implement into UK law the three main future relationship agreements with the EU including the EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). What does the TCA mean for employment and immigration law?
Employment
A significant portion of UK employment law is derived from and grounded in EU law. Under the EU Withdrawal Agreement all EU employment legislation which had effect on 31 December 2020 is adopted into UK law and so workers’ rights which existed prior to the end of the implementation period … Continue Reading
Posted in Contracts, UKOn 4 December 2020, the UK Government launched a consultation on reforming post-termination non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The consultation seeks views on proposals to require employers to pay employees for the period of the restriction; requiring employers to provide additional transparency by providing in writing the exact terms of the non-compete clause before their employment commence; introducing a statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses; or, alternatively prohibiting the use of such clauses altogether.
Post termination restrictions or restrictive covenants are often included in employment contracts. Non-compete clauses are one type of restriction, which limits an employee’s ability … Continue Reading
Posted in Coronavirus, Data privacy and GDPR, UKWith the announcement that one of the Covid-19 vaccines has received approval from the UK regulator, employers are now asking whether they can insist that employees are vaccinated before returning to the workplace. There are clearly legal and moral issues that need to be considered.
Firstly, the anticipated Covid-19 vaccination programme in the UK will not be made mandatory as the UK government does not have legal power to do this, alongside the challenges and human rights concerns this would raise in any event. The UK Government has the power to prevent, control or mitigate the spread of an infection … Continue Reading
Posted in UKLast week, the Pensions Regulator (TPR) launched a new initiative that asks pension scheme trustees, administrators, advisers and providers to publicly pledge that they are taking appropriate action to protect their scheme members from scammers. The pledge is aimed to encourage better understanding of the warning signs of a scam, and to improve internal processes that could protect members.
Pension scams have been an increasing problem in recent years, with members targeted either to transfer their defined benefit pension pots in to a fraudulent scheme, or to a legitimate scheme but encouraged to invest in high-risk or unregulated investment options. … Continue Reading
Posted in Coronavirus, UKFurther to our blog post on 5 November, when the UK Government announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) will remain open until 31 March 2021, the Government has now published detailed guidance on the extension of the scheme. The guidance is comprised of a number of different documents covering such matters as which employees can be claimed for and how to calculate the claim under the scheme.
The main points to note from the guidance are as follows:
Posted in Coronavirus, UKFurther to our post about the extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), the Chancellor announced on 5 November that the CJRS (also known as the furlough scheme) will remain open until 31 March 2021. The Government also published a policy paper setting out further details of the CJRS, confirming that the scheme rules will remain the same except where indicated otherwise.
The main points to note are that:
Posted in Coronavirus, UKOn 31 October 2020, the UK Government announced a the new national lockdown due to begin on Thursday 5 November. On the same day, the Government announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which was due to come to an end on that day, would be extended to continue during the period of lockdown. The Job Support Scheme (JSS), which was due to come into effect on 1 November as a replacement scheme, has now been postponed until the CJRS ends.
The level of support available under the CJRS during November mirrors that which was available under the CJRS … Continue Reading
Posted in Coronavirus, UKAs we announced in our blog post here on 24 September the UK Chancellor outlined additional government support to help businesses and workers impacted by COVID-19, which would come into force once the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) ends on 31 October 2020. However, with further restrictions being placed on businesses and the introduction of a three tier lockdown, the Government announced on 22 October that the level of support to be provided under the Job Support Scheme (JSS) would be increased.
The JSS relating to businesses that can remain open has been renamed the Job Support Scheme Open (JSS … Continue Reading
