The government has unveiled a series of employment law reforms aimed at boosting the economy and reducing costs for businesses. The measures include changes to the Working Time Regulations 1998, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE), and non-compete clauses. The measures are set out in the policy paper ‘Smarter Regulation to Grow
The law on redundancy can seem complex and demanding to an employer. When making staff redundant, employers need to ensure that they follow a fair process that recognizes an employee’s rights while also seeking to achieve the organization’s goals in making the redundancy in the first place (e.g. saving cost). Throughout the redundancy process, the employer
An employee at Lean Education and Development (LED) training firm won £11,885.62 for her unfair dismissal claim after she was accused of making deliberate mistakes to financially ruin her employer. Tracie Shearwood worked for LED for several years and after numerous promotions she held the role of head of compliance. In April 2018, her managing
Donna Patterson worked as a buyer in the Morrisons’ supermarket online business in Bradford. Whilst on maternity leave, her role was changed to fulfil the responsibilities of a full-time job, and upon her return, she was pressured to work longer hours, beyond what was stipulated in her contract. Ms Patterson was told she could do
The Employment Tribunal has ruled that a civil servant who was sacked after she looked up her neighbour’s private data on a government database was not unfairly dismissed. The case involved Louise Kelly, who said her behaviour had been caused by a lack of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Kelly had worked for the Department of
A GP’s receptionist has been awarded £45,000 after winning a discrimination claim over home working during the pandemic. The case involved Tracy Keown, who was classified as disabled due to her microvascular angina. She had worked at Staines Road Surgery since 2019 and was considered to be in the high-risk category during the pandemic. Her
The employment tribunal decision in Furlong v The Chief Constable of Cheshire Police reminds employers that the ‘tie-breaker’ exemption should not be used as a blanket policy to favour underrepresented groups with shared protected characteristics in a recruitment selection process. Doing so would amount to unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. In this case, a well-intentioned police
Often when a team of people decide to do business together they do so with people known to them whether it be family members, colleagues or friends. It is common to feel that formalising the business relationship legally is unnecessary as parties often find it difficult to imagine that these seemingly positive relationships could deteriorate
The number of firms going out of business or facing serious financial distress has risen sharply this year, according to the latest figures. The Insolvency Service says there were 5,629 corporate insolvencies in Q2, an increase of 12.7% compared to Q1’s figures of 4,995, and an increase of 81.3% compared to Q2 2021 (3,105). Meanwhile,
Constructive dismissal is where an employer has committed a serious breach of contract that the employee’s only option is to resign in response to the employer’s conduct. In order to bring a successful claim, the employee will need to show that: Their employer was in repudiatory breach of their employment contract; They resigned in response