Employment Law Updates
Employment law is constantly changing, both in terms of legislation and when new case law develops. We can advise you of significant developments when they occur, summarising what you need to know in our clear, user-friendly email updates. As always, we will be focused on how the law will affect your workplace in practice, so that you can be best equipped to deal with any changes.
March 20, 2012
As part of its review of employment law, the Government has issued a Call for Evidence on the introduction of the concept that small employers will have the right to dismiss employees without cause, provided they make a statutory payment to the employee. It is suggested that this might be the equivalent of statutory redundancy pay.
For this purpose, it is proposed that small employers will be those with fewer than 10 employees. If this change is introduced, it is estimated that 21% of employees in Great Britain will be affected. Read more
March 20, 2012
The Court of Appeal recently considered the case of Crawford and another v Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. This was an appeal by the Trust from a successful claim for unfair dismissal by two nurses. The two nurses had been dismissed following an incident where they attempted to restrain a patient in his chair with bed sheets. The patient was causing harm to himself at the time so this was not a malicious or particularly negligent act, but it was against relevant guidelines. The matter had been reported to the police by the Trust, but the police had taken no further action following their investigation. Read more
March 20, 2012
An area employers often find particularly difficult when dealing with redundancy situations is the question of which employees should go into the pool for selection.
If there are employees whose jobs are sufficiently similar, then they should be put in a pool for selection, and objective criteria should be applied in order to determine who is selected for redundancy. If on the other hand there is an employee in a standalone position, where there is no one else to include in a pool, then there is no requirement for selection criteria. Read more
March 20, 2012
We have written previously about the rights of employees to accrue holidays when they are off work sick, and the issues around this (see for example here). The courts have however been inconsistent in their interpretation of the law and how it applies to people who become ill whilst on holiday, and to those who can’t enjoy their holiday due to becoming ill before their holiday starts. Read more
March 20, 2012
Under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”) outsourcing a service or part of a service can constitute a TUPE transfer. This is called ‘a service provision change’. Where such a transfer takes place, if an employee’s working conditions are changed to their material detriment then the employee may be entitled to resign and bring claims. Read more
March 20, 2012
Employers should want whistleblowers in their businesses. Some may consider this statement to be controversial because the term ‘whistleblowing’ attracts some negative press. However, there are few employers who would not want their employees or workers to tell them about important, and potentially damaging, practices or matters of concern going on in their organisation. Read more
March 20, 2012
Smoking in enclosed or substantially enclosed public places and workplaces in England has been prohibited since July 2007. Although you might think this would ’stub out’ many of the issues relating to smoking employees, employers still frequently ask for our advice about problems relating to smoking, so we thought it would be helpful to put together some guidance on the main areas. Read more
February 28, 2012
As we have previously reported, the qualification period for employees to claim unfair dismissal will rise to 2 years from 6 April 2012. This change will also apply to the right for an employee who has been dismissed to request written reasons for dismissal from their former employer. Read more
February 28, 2012
As part of the Government’s measures to reform the Employment Tribunal system, regulations have now been laid before Parliament and will come into force in April 2012. Read more
February 28, 2012
Vicarious liability is a legal term which deals with the situation where someone is held responsible for someone else’s actions. Generally, an employer will be liable for the acts of its employees, provided those acts are done in the course of their employment. The key question in determining whether there is liability or not is therefore “was the employee acting in the course of their employment?” Read more