Category: "news"

Employee awarded £47,000 in transgender discrimination case
The recent case of de Souza v Primark (2018) involved one of the highest reported awards for gender reassignment discrimination. We take a look at the Tribunal's findings and the lessons employers can learn from Primark's mistakes. The case involved a shop assistant at a Primark store, Miss... read more »

To bump or not to bump?
Considering it is not particularly common to see it in practice, bumping is something that clients ask us about surprisingly often. It is a term that many employers and HR practitioners have heard of, and know they need to be wary about, but they tend to be unsure about... read more »

Dismissed for knowing a criminal
There are only a very small number of unfair dismissal cases which reach the Supreme Court, usually because the costs of pursuing them this far is completely disproportionate to the remedy if the claimant is to succeed. The recently reported case of Reilly v Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council... read more »

National Minimum Wage headaches for employers
There were plenty of big names on the Government's 'name and shame' list this month for those who had been paying their workers less than National Minimum Wage - and there were a range of reasons why. If even the biggest employers have fallen foul of the rules, it... read more »

Snow and adverse weather – what does the law say?
Today we have seen the first effects of Storm Emma, the ‘Beast from the East’ – she has struck the UK, and now we have snow! Although there is only a light dusting here in West Sussex (at the time of writing), in other areas trains, buses and aeroplanes have... read more »

Is the Government's response to the Taylor Review good news ?
The Government has recently published its response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices (see our previous article on the Taylor Review here), along with four consultation documents. The consultations are open until 1 June 2018, and cover agency workers, read more »

Taxation of termination payments - what's changing?
With effect from 6 April this year, there are significant changes being made to the taxation of payments made to employees in lieu of their contractual notice. Under the existing rules, the taxation of a payment in lieu of notice (PILON) has been a complicated area, and one often misunderstood... read more »

Porn in the workplace - Part 2
In part 1 of this article, I finished by saying how important a clear policy on the use of the the internet and email, and in particular the viewing or sending of pornographic material can be. That said, a clear policy will not in itself guarantee an employer will... read more »

Mind the Gap! The latest on gender pay reporting
The gender pay gap is an incredibly hot topic at the moment. The fall-out from the BBC’s publication of the pay of its top employees is ongoing, with it only being announced last week that some of the highest paid male stars have agreed to a pay cut to... read more »

Changes to watch out for in 2018
It was announced the Autumn 2017 budget that: - The National Living Wage (for those aged 25 and over) is to increase by 4.4% from £7.50 per hour to £7.83 per hour from 1 April 2018. The other National Minimum Wage rates will also increase as set out below: 21 to... read more »