Just Employment Law Blog

Sick employees must request holidays to get holiday pay

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:08:02 +0000

As regular readers of our blog will be aware, there has recently been a tide of court judgments upholding the rights of long-term absentees to receive holiday pay under the Working Time Regulations, whether during or on termination of employment. Employers will therefore welcome a new decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) which provides that such employees may only be entitled to receive paid annual leave if they actually apply for holidays whilst they remain off sick.

Minimum Wage Breaks £6 barrier for the first time

Thu, 6 Oct 2011 01:31:22 +0100

The National Minimum Wage broke the £6 barrier for the first time on 1 October 2011.

Agency Workers Regulations

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:15:43 +0100

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 are due to come into force on 1 October 2011. The Regulations introduce new rights for agency workers by providing them with the same rights as employees of the organisation hiring them, subject to certain conditions...

ACAS Guidance on Social Networking

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:05:28 +0100

On 1 September 2011 ACAS launched guidance on its website to help UK employers and employees get to grips with cyber issues which are estimated to cost businesses millions of pounds every year...

Age Discrimination Claims Rise Dramatically

Tue, 6 Sep 2011 11:12:05 +0100

The annual statistics for the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal tribunal for April 2010 to March 2011 have recently been published...

Dismissed Worker entitled to previous year's holiday pay

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:49:16 +0100

A new Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) judgment has determined that a worker who had been on sick leave for an entire leave year was entitled to a payment in respect of that previous year’s full annual holiday entitlement, when shortly after the start of the new leave year her employment was terminated.

ECJ Gives Guidance on Justifying Compulsory Retirement

Mon, 1 Aug 2011 10:46:49 +0100

Regular readers of our updates will know that (subject to transitional arrangements where the process started prior to 6 April this year) it is no longer possible for UK employers to compulsorily retire employees at a particular age unless they are able to establish an ‘employer-justified’ retirement age...

Right to legal representation at disciplinary hearings

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:30:09 +0100

The UK Supreme Court has decided that a teaching assistant was not after all entitled to legal representation at disciplinary proceedings related to allegations of sexual misconduct with a child...

Case Summary: No discrimination in refusing time off to pray at Mosque during work hours

Mon, 6 Jun 2011 12:51:10 +0100

In a recent case an employee, Mr Cherfi (C) brought a claim against his employer (G4S) for discrimination following their refusal to allow him to leave work to attend Friday prayers at a Mosque.

Government Consults on Further Reforms of Holidays and Parental Leave

Tue, 17 May 2011 03:33:58 +0100

Yesterday, the government opened a consultation process on further reforms to a number of key areas of employment law. Some of the more interesting reforms relate to annual holidays and the sharing of leave between parents following the birth of a child...

The abolition of the default retirement age - Frequently asked questions

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 03:38:45 +0000

With the approaching abolition of the national default retirement age of 65 on 6 April 2011, we have compiled below answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about compulsorily retiring your employees...

Shared Parenting

Wed, 9 Feb 2011 03:42:51 +0000

It has been announced that the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills will launch a consultation process to explore proposals to implement a new flexible working system by 2015...

Miriam O'Reilly Wins Countryfile Ageism Claim

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:44:28 +0000

The success of Miriam O’Reilly in claiming age discrimination against the BBC for removing her from the programme Countryfile this week will ring alarm bells for many employers in the coming months...

Unfair Dismissal Compensation

Fri, 7 Jan 2011 11:55:34 +0000

The maximum award in a claim for unfair dismissal will break the £80,000 barrier from 1 February 2011...

Payment of employees unable to attend work

Tue, 4 Jan 2011 10:17:42 +0000

Are employees entitled to be paid if they are unable to attend work?

A Summary of Employment Law Advances in 2010

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:17:05 +0000

Some of the Most Significant Employment Law Advances of 2010 have been...

The Royal Wedding - Public Holiday

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 02:21:19 +0000

The Royal Wedding - Are employers required to give employees a public holiday?

Information to challenge redundancy scoring

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:12:46 +0000

Employees must be given enough information to challenge redundancy scoring...

Unfair Dismissal Qualifying Period

Fri, 5 Nov 2010 02:22:12 +0000

If you want to dismiss an employee for no reason your chance may come sooner than you think...

Dismissal by letter – When is the dismissal effective?

Wed, 3 Nov 2010 11:23:19 +0000

A Judgement has been issued by The Supreme Court on when exactly the dismissal of an employee takes effect . This determines the date the employee must be paid until, and it may also have relevance to the question of whether someone has sufficient continuous employment to bring an employment tribunal claim....

New Law Prohibiting Pre-employment Health Questions

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 08:47:06 +0100

The Government Equalities Office has published a list of the provisionsof the Equality Act 2010 which will come into force on 1 October 2010.The majority of the provisions will come into force on this date,including section 60 prohibiting employers from asking pre-employmenthealth questions.

Default Retirement Age to be Gone Next Year

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:53:01 +0100

The Government has begun the consultation process on its plan to abolish the Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65 on 6 April 2011. From that date, it is expected that employers will no longer have the automatic right to issue notices of retirement to employees who have reached or who are approaching the age of 65...

Sharing Maternity Entitlements

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:58:20 +0100

For families expecting the arrival of a baby on or after 3 April 2011, new Regulations will be in force enabling the mother to transfer some of her maternity leave to the father as Additional Paternity Leave...

First Provisions of the Equality Act to be Implemented in October 2010

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 12:55:42 +0100

A press release published on the Government Equalities Office’s website has now confirmed that the first provisions of the Equality Act will be implemented on 1 October 2010...

Emergency Budget - Employment Law Implications

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:06:25 +0100

The Chancellor George Osborne delivered the new coalition Government’s emergency budget on 22 June 2010. The measures that the new Government are taking to address the country’s deficit have been well documented. What, however, are the implications for employment law?..

Are you ready for World Cup Absences on 23 June 2010?

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:39:59 +0100

The only 'during normal working hours' World Cup match of 2010, England vs Slovenia, will kick off at 4:00pm on Wednesday 23 June and is expected to cause a lot of Absences in the workplace...

Coalition's Focus on Employment Policy

Wed, 26 May 2010 01:21:52 +0100

As with the initial announcement of the Coalition’s plans to phase out the default retirement age, the detail in respect of the proposed implementation of highlighted employment policies remains unclear at this stage...

Coalition Plans to Phase Out Default Retirement Age

Tue, 18 May 2010 02:20:21 +0100

The new coalition government’s legislative programme for employment law remains largely unclear. Much is likely to depend on how the tensions between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats regarding their differing views on European Social Chapter legislation are resolved...

Time Off Work for Training

Fri, 9 Apr 2010 02:16:56 +0100

From April 6 2010, if you work for an organisation that has 250 or more staff you have the right to request time off work to undertake study or training. However, from 6 April 2011, the right will apply to all employees, regardless of the size of the employer...

Fit Notes - The New Sick Note

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:34:50 +0100

On 6 April 2010 the familiar ‘sick note’ that GPs supply to employees will be abolished. It will be replaced with the new ‘fit note’. We explain what a fit note is and what the main differences are to be...

European Parliament Committee Pass Draft to Extend Maternity Leave

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:41:25 +0000

A European Parliament committee have passed a draft leg to extend maternity leave across Europe to 20 weeks on full pay...

Employment Contract Changes: Changes to Employment Terms and Conditions

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:03:52 +0000

Generally speaking, your consent is required before your employer can change your terms and conditions of employment. This can be obtained either at the time the change in terms and conditions is proposed, or by the contract itself authorising the change...

Pregnant Worker Risk Assessment

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:38:24 +0000

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employer will only be required to carry out a risk assessment for a pregnant worker if...

Changes in Compensation Limits 2010

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 09:45:30 +0000

The Employment Rights (Revision of Limits) Order 2009 applies from 1 February 2010...

Employment Legislation - What Should you be Looking Out for in 2010?

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:11:42 +0000

There were many developments in employment law in 2009 with new legislation from Parliament and many important cases being decided by both domestic and international Courts. In our view the pace of change is not likely to lessen in 2010...

A Summary of Employment Law Advances in 2009

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 03:35:15 +0000

In this update, we comment on a number of changes that impacted businesses in 2009...

Are Bonuses Entirely at the Discretion of the Employer?

Sun, 3 Jan 2010 02:47:34 +0000

In recent years, the appellate courts have been asked to interpret a variety of discretionary bonus clauses. A consistent point in their judgements has been that an employer's discretion is never totally unfettered in such schemes...

Flexible Working Requests

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:22:43 +0000

Flexible working requests such as term-time working, job sharing, flexi-time, or even working from home can rejected by an employer for a wide variety of statutory reasons, including reasons relating to cost, performance, and quality...

Are you being Discriminated against at work?

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:54:01 +0000

In almost all areas of discrimination law, someone who claims that they have been unlawfully discriminated against will have to demonstrate ‘less favourable treatment’ by identifying a comparator...

Loyalty Rewards - Age Discrimination or Motivation of Staff?

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:08:53 +0000

Many employees receive benefits to reward loyalty. Common examples include additional holidays, or private healthcare, on the completion of a number of years of service, but this may be about to change...

Reasonable Adjustments for Disabled Employees

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:49:51 +0000

As a disabled employee you should see ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that you are not put to a substantial disadvantage in the workplace...

Retirement Age Review

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 03:44:20 +0000

The Government has opted to bring forward to 2010, a review of the default retirement age of 65, found in the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006...

Minimum Wage and Tips

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:27:13 +0000

Employers are no longer able to use tips, service charges and gratuities paid to employees to meet minimum wage...

Changes to Minimum Wage

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:14:33 +0100

The UK minimum wage for adults, 18-21's & 16-17's rose from 1st October 2009...

Race Discrimination

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:27:00 +0100

Even though an employer may have good intentions this is not a defence...

Fair Redundancy Pay

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 02:12:56 +0100

The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has now published its final impact assessment on the Work and Families (Increase of Maximum Amount) Order 2009...

Are you entitled to paid holidays if you're on a long-term sickness absence?

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 01:59:00 +0100

If you're on a long-term sickness absence, are you entitled to paid holidays? The simple answer to this question is yes...

Dealing with Work Related Stress

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 12:05:46 +0100

On 25 February 2009 the Health and Safety Executive launched a new website to provide employees with useful information about dealing with stress. If stress at work is a concern for you, you may wish to...