Buy to let investors could save a total of £50m a year because of the stamp duty reforms, if property purchases continue at the current level. The reforms, announced by Chancellor George Osborne in the Autumn Statement, swept away the much criticised ‘slab tax’ approach to stamp duty and replaced it with a more progressive
The government is launching an ‘older workers champion scheme’ to tackle age discrimination in the workplace. The move follows concerns that older workers have to cope with much higher levels of long-term unemployment than younger people. The scheme, which will begin trials in April, will offer older jobseekers a career review, online support and a
The recent ruling by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that overtime earnings must be taken into account when calculating holiday pay has alarmed many employers who fear they may now be liable for compensation claims dating back several years. That, however, doesn’t seem to be the case. The issue over holiday pay entitlement was raised
The trade union Unison has suffered a major setback in its challenge to the introduction of fees for people wanting to take cases to an employment tribunal. The High Court rejected its application for a judicial review because of a lack of evidence showing that fees were making it more difficult to bring cases to
A firm has been awarded more than £50,000 compensation from one of its employees who set up a rival business with his two sons. The court heard that the three had all worked together at the same glass recycling business. The father didn’t have written terms of employment until February 2013, when he signed a
A woman has failed with a claim of constructive unfair dismissal after she resigned following a disagreement about the lawfulness of a redundancy selection process. The woman worked as a human resources manager for a graphics company. She was ordered to complete a redundancy selection process by her superiors. She believed that the members of
A manager has lost a bullying and harassment claim after the High Court ruled that he could not be classed as an employee and so the company he worked for did not owe him a duty of care. The case involved a manager who operated a number of petrol stations under a retail business agreement
An employer has won an appeal against a tribunal’s decision that an employee could be classified as disabled during two periods of sick leave. The case involved an employee who had two lengthy periods of absence from work; the first was for work-related stress and the second for a combination of migraines, headaches and stress.
The government has announced that a £2m fund is to be spent on initiatives aimed at reducing the gender pay gap. The funding will go towards training, events and monitoring programmes for women to help them move from low paid, low skilled work to jobs that are high paid and high skilled. The measures will
A leading accountancy firm has estimated that companies and organisations in the UK could be losing up to £200m as a result of ‘shadow insolvencies’. A ‘shadow insolvency’ is a term for when a company becomes insolvent but doesn’t disclose any assets when it enters liquidation. This means there is no money to pay to