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The government is planning to set up an independent regulatory body to oversee the work of letting and property management agents. Ministers say the move is necessary to end abuses in the property management industry, drive down costs and protect consumers from the small minority of rogue agents. Research by consumer group Which? shows that
Britain has seen a surge in the number of new businesses being created each year, according to the latest government figures. There are now a record 5.5 million private sector firms – a million more than seven years ago. The Minister for Small Business, Margot James, welcomed the figures, saying: “Small businesses employ 12.5 million
The government has begun refunding employment tribunal fees following the Supreme Court ruling that they’re unlawful. The fees were introduced in 2013, with employees having to pay up to £1,200 to bring a claim. Following a challenge by the union Unison, the Supreme Court ruled that the fees were discriminatory, unlawful and unconstitutional. Up to
A woman who was told that she would be better off working for a more traditional firm has won her claim of age discrimination. Carolina Gomes, aged 59, worked as an administrator for an estate agency. In 2015, management became dissatisfied with her work and told her that she needed to cut out mistakes in
A woman who suffered with mental health problems has been awarded more than £11,000 compensation after her employer failed to deal properly with her request to work fewer hours. Marie-Claire McLaughlin worked for the Charles Hurst car firm when she began to suffer from depression and panic attacks. She asked for reduced hours but her
Parents who lose a child under the age of 18 are to be given the right to two weeks’ paid leave to allow them time to grieve. The government says the allowance will be one of the most generous in the world. Currently under the Employment Rights Act, employees have a day-one right to take
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a teacher’s dismissal was at the extreme end of reasonable but was not unfair. The teacher had been dismissed following a disciplinary hearing. Her internal appeal was dismissed after the panel found that she had repeatedly failed to follow reasonable management requests to attend meetings; had communicated in
A woman who was estranged from her father has been awarded £30,000 from his estate even though he disinherited his children in his will. The court heard that Stanley Nahajec had left all his £265,000 estate to a friend. His three children got nothing. Elena Nahajec, the only child from Mr Nahajec’s second marriage, made
An engineer who was dismissed after his employer monitored his emails has won his appeal that his right to privacy had been breached. The case involved a Romanian company that set up an IT system and Yahoo messenger account to enable employees to send work-related emails. It was against company policy to use the systems
A company’s decision to use new technology to bring one of its services back in house did not remove its responsibility under TUPE to hire workers affected by the change. That was the decision of the Employment Tribunal in the case of Anglo Beef Processors UK and a meat inspector, Mr Longland. Anglo hired an