BUSINESS LEGAL EMPLOYMENT LAW
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- Hours and Pay (12)
- Information and Consultation (12)
- Dismissals (17)
- Discrimination and Redundancy (17)
News Archive
News & Articles
Employers beware critical remarks about employees05/12/2011
An employee has won a constructive dismissal claim against her employer after seeing criticism of her leadership skills by her Chief Executive in an internal email sent to her by mistake.
Employers still unclear over sick workers' rights to holiday pay
05/12/2011
Recent inconsistent legal decisions over the holiday pay rights of workers on long-term sick leave mean that employers are still uncertain over their obligations.
Campaign outside tribunal hearing can result in costs award
05/12/2011
Carrying on a campaign about an Employment Tribunal dispute outside the court room - sometimes called a 'campaign beyond the proceedings' - can result in a costs award against the campaigner by the Tribunal, according to a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision.
Businesses must make sure agency workers share in tips from customers
03/11/2011
Restaurants, hotels and other employers whose staff are tipped by customers must now make sure that their longer-serving agency workers are entitled to their share when the tips are divided among the workforce.
Employee's dismissal for derogatory Facebook comments about work unfair
03/11/2011
Employers should not dismiss employees for making derogatory comments about their work on Facebook or other networking sites without making sure the dismissal is reasonable in all the circumstances, following a recent Employment Tribunal (ET) decision.
Employee refusing offer of alternative employment gets nothing for loss of earnings
03/11/2011
An employee who unreasonably refused an offer of alternative employment had not mitigated their losses as required by law, and was not entitled to any compensation for loss of earnings.
Employers may be able to vary new employees' pay following TUPE transfer
03/11/2011
An employer may be able to vary the pay of TUPE-protected employees following transfer to it of a new business, to get rid of a disparity between their pay and that of comparable employees in the sector.
Retracting dismissal notice given by mistake not so easy
03/11/2011
An employer that intended to give a dismissal notice at the time, but later tried to unilaterally retract it when it discovered it had made a mistake, has been told by the court that it cannot do so.
Unequal pay justified after TUPE transfer if contract applies
04/10/2011
Pay rises for TUPE-protected employees resulting in continuing unequal pay can be justified, provided terms of payment allow it, according to a legal ruling.
Employers can withdraw incentives to agree to variation of employees' contracts on offer to re-engage
04/10/2011
Employees offered an incentive to agree to a commercially justified variation of their contracts could not claim unfair dismissal on grounds the offer to re-engage them did not include an equivalent sum if they refused to accept the variation and were subsequently dismissed, according to a recent legal ruling.
Employee's reasonable belief in health and safety danger makes employer's view irrelevant
04/10/2011
Employers who sack an employee who refuses to carry out a task because they reasonably believe the circumstances create a health and safety danger risk losing a claim for unfair dismissal by the employee, following a recent ruling.
Workers who are not 'available' are not entitled to the minimum wage
04/10/2011
A mobile employee who has to stay in hotels or B&Bs in order to start work early enough the next morning is not entitled to the national minimum wage for the time there, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has recently ruled.
Right for certain staff to re-start interrupted breaks is within working time regulations
04/10/2011
Employers who allow security and surveillance staff whose breaks are liable to be interrupted to start them again if that happens are still within the working time rules, the Court of Appeal has decided.
Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) Come into Force on 1st October
12/09/2011
From 1st October 2011, temporary agency workers will be provided with the same rights as permanent employees as the 2010 Regulations come into force. This will affect areas such as pay, benefits, annual leave and rest periods, but will not extend to aspects such as pension provisions, redundancy pay, expenses and occupational sick pay.
European Court gives guidance on age-related retirement of employees
02/09/2011
Employers will benefit from European Court of Justice (ECJ) guidance on when forcible retirement of employees because of their age is 'objectively justified', following a recent ruling.
Liability of employers and employees to pay compensation following discrimination will usually be 'joint and several'
02/09/2011
Employees may start claiming against fellow workers, as well as their employer, in discrimination claims, following a recent legal decision that liability to pay compensation should usually be 'joint and several' - so the employee making the claim can pursue all or any of the employee and/or the employees who discriminated against them for the full amount of their award.
Employer must pay sick employee's accrued holiday pay on dismissal for capability
02/09/2011
Employers must pay accrued holiday pay to sick employees they dismiss if the employees are entitled to carry untaken holiday into the next year, even if the employee has not made a formal request to do so, according to a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling.
Employee's right to holiday accumulated during sick leave may be limited to 18 months
02/09/2011
Employees on long-term sick leave, may in the future, only be entitled to take holiday accrued during the last 18 months, if a preliminary opinion of the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is followed at the full ECJ hearing.
Employees earning more overall can bring equal pay claims over just one element of their pay
02/09/2011
Employers paying female employees a lower hourly rate than male comparators for one element of their work risk an equal pay claim, even if the females earn a higher rate for other aspects of their work and, overall, their earnings are higher than those of the men.
Employer can dismiss for potential serious consequences even if they do not happen
02/09/2011
An employer's dismissal of two employees, whose omissions could have had very serious consequences, was entitled to dismiss them, even though those consequences did not actually occur, in a recent legal decision.
The Bribery Act 2010 Comes into Force in 2011
17/08/2011
With this Act coming into force on 1 July this year, Tollers Solicitors jointly held a Bribery Act Seminar with Grant Thornton on 28 June, to prepare companies for its significant and far reaching impact.
Businesses should ensure status of those working for them is clear to avoid claims risks
01/08/2011
Two recent cases have helped clarify when a person working in a business is to be treated as an owner of it, or an employee or worker entitled to bring employment law claims against the business.
Tribunal clarifies dismissal test for 'some other substantial reason'
01/08/2011
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has clarified what employers must show in order to justify dismissal for 'some other substantial reason' and the tests to be applied.
Worker sick all year? Entitlement to Annual Leave remains
29/07/2011
Since the European Court decision of Stringer -v- HMRC in 2009, our clients have been questioning the correct position to take regarding sick workers and annual leave. This case held that employees continued to accrue annual leave during a period of sick leave.
Possible Expiry of Annual Leave Accrued by Workers on Long Term Sick Leave
19/07/2011
Following the decision in Stringer, employers have been faced with the prospect of having to allow employees who have been on long term sick to carry over any accrued holiday entitlement into the next holiday year, or being paid in lieu of that holiday on an unlimited basis. However, the first stage of a hearing before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) may offer some possible clarification to employers.
Dismissals for Refusing A Pay Cut
18/07/2011
The case of Garside & Laycock v Booth has recently dealt with the question of whether a dismissal for failure of an employee to accept a proposed wage cut was fair for ‘some other substantial reason’.
Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR)
04/07/2011
From the 1st October 2011, new Regulations come into force which will provide temporary agency workers with the same rights as permanent employees in areas such as pay, benefits, annual leave and rest periods.
Interns on temporary placements may be entitled to salary
04/07/2011
Employers may be liable to pay interns on temporary placements with them at least the national minimum wage if the circumstances, including the jobs you give them to do, imply they are 'workers', according to recent legal rulings.
Employers now more likely to be able to use cost as justification for discrimination
04/07/2011
Costs considerations can be enough to 'objectively justify' what would otherwise be unlawful indirect discrimination against an employee, according to a recent Employment Appeals Tribunal ruling.
Court clarifies rules governing termination dates and payments in lieu of notice (PILONs) when summarily dismissing employees
04/07/2011
Employers will welcome guidance on how to make the termination date clear when summarily dismissing an employee and making a PILON to them, following a recent ruling in the Court of Appeal.
