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Several changes to employment law came into effect on 1 April. Apprenticeship Levy Employers with payrolls of £3m and above now have to pay a levy of 0.5% of their pay bill to help fund 3 million additional apprenticeships over the next five years. The aim is to increase job opportunities for people aged between
Employers can ban the wearing of “”any political, philosophical or religious sign”” including headscarves as long as the requirement to “dress neutrally” applies to all employees. However, the ban has to be based on consistent company rules; it cannot be suddenly introduced merely because of a request from a customer. Employers should also proceed with
A teacher with bipolar disorder has been awarded £346,000 compensation in a disability discrimination case in which she says she was “bullied and victimised”. Nicola Sinclair was forced to resign from the Bishop of Llandaff Church in Wales High School after developing mental health issues. She had worked there for 23 years. Three months after
A woman has won a dispute with her siblings over the validity of their mother’s will, which had been mislaid shortly after being made. Following the mother’s death, the siblings claimed there was no will and so were granted letters of administration enabling them to dispose of her estate and share the proceeds. When a
The government has announced plans to build thousands of starter homes on brownfield sites across the country. They will be built exclusively for first-time buyers between 23 and 40 years old and sold at a discount of at least 20% below market value. The scheme will be run by the Homes and Communities agency in
The High Court has decided how two partners should divide their business after they fell out and could no longer work together. The two men were brothers who had run a jewellery business through an English limited partnership based in London, two Thai companies, a British Virgin Islands (BVI) company, and a company registered in
More than 350 employers have been named and shamed for failing to pay the national minimum wage rates. It’s the largest list of its kind so far produced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and names 360 businesses that underpaid 15,520 workers a total of £995,233. Employers in the hairdressing, hospitality and
The landlord of a holiday park has won a legal dispute with chalet tenants over service charges. The tenants held long leases that obliged them to pay whatever the landlord “”may reasonably require on account”” by 31 December every year to maintain and manage the park. The lease specified that the service charge was to
The Court of Appeal has overturned a decision that a £250m contract was binding based just on what was agreed in a phone call. The case involved negotiations that took place between property investors and a group of financiers. On 23 April 2015, the investors sent the financiers a letter marked “”without prejudice – subject
A company director must repay a £150,000 investment after guaranteeing that he would double the figure within eight weeks. The case involved the director of a company based in the United Arab Emirates. He was looking for an urgent investment to finance a deal. He met a potential investor and told him that the typical