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The Employment Appeal Tribunal has provided a ruling which offers some valuable guidance for employers taking on apprentices. Unless certain conditions are met, apprentices should be treated as fully fledged employees and paid accordingly. The case involved a riding school and livery business which took on a number of apprentices. They carried out tasks such
Five company directors have been disqualified from trading for a combined total of 39½ years after repeatedly using sales tactics that breached consumer legislation. The directors worked for SAS Fire and Security Systems Limited. The company sold fire and burglar alarms. It was investigated by Trading Standards in 2013 for its aggressive sales approach. The
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a commercial tenant was not entitled to a refund of prepaid sums after exercising a release clause. The tenant had a commercial lease which was due to expire in 2018. The terms included a break clause that offered the tenant the option of terminating the lease in either
An increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to escape from the financial uncertainty left by the recession, according to a new survey. Research by insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor shows that the number of UK companies that were suffering ‘significant distress’ in Quarter 2 of 2014 was 237,000, which is 60,000
A subcontractor has been told it must accept liability for faulty workmanship that caused a flood at a block of flats even though the work was examined and signed off by the construction company running the project. The case involved flats built in the south of England. The construction company responsible for the development subcontracted
The national minimum wage has risen by 19p to £6.50 per hour as of 1 October 2014. The rate applies to anyone aged 21 or over. All other rates have also risen, with workers aged 18-20 now earning at least £5.13 per hour, workers aged 16-17 on at least £3.79 per hour and apprentices on
New measures to help designers and patent holders protect their valuable intellectual property (IP) came into effect in October. The Intellectual Property Act 2014 was introduced to modernise and streamline the whole IP legal framework. It is hoped that the measures will contribute £500m to the UK economy over the next ten years. Key reforms
Up to 10,000 new homes will be built between 2015 and 2018 as part of the government’s new Rent to Buy scheme. Housing associations will be able to apply for low-cost loans from a fund of £400m to finance the projects. They will then have 16 years to repay the loans, and during this time,
The inheritance tax threshold could rise significantly before the general election in May 2015. Prime Minister David Cameron believes that families should not be made to pay large amounts of tax on homes where they have lived for several years. He hopes to increase the inheritance tax threshold in the coalition’s final budget before the
A man has been ordered to pay £28,500 to his former partner after he had assured her that she would have a home for life. The couple began living together in 2002. The woman had been living in a secure tenancy and had limited resources. They bought a house with the man’s capital and he