Read our latest articles, news briefs and legal updates across all our different services.
The Employment Tribunal has ruled that Sainsbury’s acted unfairly when it dismissed one of its workers after she had called her boss a “young idiot” on Facebook. The tribunal heard that 68-year-old Ms A Spence had worked for the supermarket chain for 24 years and had never before faced disciplinary action. In 2017, her daughter
Drax Power was entitled to withhold payment relating to one set of works to offset the cost of remedying defects in another set of works carried out by the same contractor. That was the decision of the High Court in a case involving Drax and Shepherd Construction Ltd. The issue arose after Drax engaged Shepherd
Two businessmen who breached their legal duties as company directors have been ordered to repay £600,000, even though the court accepted that one of them probably hadn’t realised that anything unlawful was happening. The case involved TMG Brokers Ltd, which had gone into liquidation. The liquidator applied for declarations under the Insolvency Act 1986 in
A landlord has won the legal right to challenge a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) proposed by the Nero coffee shop group. Nero, which has over 800 shops in the UK, was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and had fallen into rent arrears at its shops. Mr Young was the landlord of one of the
The government is to introduce a new watchdog organisation to protect workers’ rights and prevent unfair practices. Responsibility for tackling modern slavery, enforcing the minimum wage and protecting agency workers – currently spread across 3 different bodies – will be brought under one roof, creating a comprehensive new authority, which will ensure businesses that break
The Employment Tribunal has ruled that a manager who spread sherbet on his desk to make it appear like drugs had been “foolish and insensitive” but did not deserve to be dismissed. The case involved Mr D Buchholz, who worked for Geze UK Ltd, a company that supplies products, for door, window and safety technology.
The General Medical Council (GMC) has been found to have racially discriminated against a Muslim doctor of African and European heritage. In giving its ruling, the Employment Tribunal referred to the high number of complaints against ethnic minority staff and said discrimination could be infecting the way the GMC dealt with such cases. The case
The Employment Tribunal has ruled that a company acted unfairly when it dismissed an employee because he went to the pub while off sick from work. The case involved Mr Colin Kane, who worked as a driver for Debmat Surfacing, a company that lays tarmac. Kane suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes breathing
Age discrimination claims surged by 74% last year following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s thought the figure is likely to keep rising. The research was carried out by Rest Less, the digital community for the over-50s. Rest Less analysed data from the Ministry of Justice and found that the number of age discrimination
The Divorce, Dissolution, and Separation Act 2020 brings the biggest shakeup to the UK’s divorce laws in over 50 years. After years of campaigning for the implementation of no fault divorce, the act officially received Royal Assent in June 2020. Since then couples seeking a divorce, and family law practitioners have waited patiently for news