Category: Employment law

On 26 October 2023, the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 received Royal Assent and will become law in October 2024.The key amendments to the Equality Act will be: Employers will have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment. Where there is a finding of sexual harassment against an employer, the compensation can be uplifted by up to 25% if the employer has failed in its duty to take such reasonable steps. There is no definition of what “reasonable steps” are and it…

Employers will likely be familiar with the concept that unreasonable post-termination restrictions are unlawful as they operate in restraint of trade (i.e. they unreasonably prevent an individual from earning a living). We have seen on a few occasions, the same restraint of trade principle argued in relation to clawback provisions, the argument being that a clawback provision requiring an employee to remain employed for a particular period effectively prevents that employee from finding another job and is therefore an unlawful restraint of trade. This issue was looked at again by…

The EAT’s recent decision in Omar v Epping Forest District Citizens Advice is a useful reminder of the way in which Tribunals should approach the issue. Mr Omar had twice in the past, “in the heat of the moment” verbally resigned, but after he calmed down, the employer said that they did not accept his resignation and he remained employed. On 19 February 2020, he again got angry and used words that appeared to amount to a verbal resignation. There was a further discussion that afternoon. The Claimant’s evidence was…

In the case of ‘Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland v Agnew and others‘ more than 3,500 police officers and civilian staff employed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland brought claims for underpaid holiday in the Northern Ireland Employment Tribunal. The calculation of their holiday pay had not included compulsory overtime payments and it has been established by case law from Bear Scotland v Fulton onwards that such amounts should have been included in their holiday pay calculations. The total amount underpaid going back to 1998…

Following consultation processes upon which we have previously reported, the Government has published its response and draft legislation. The intention is that the legislation comes into force on 1 January 2024 and key elements are:   Changes to holiday pay The Government has sought to address the confusion generated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel on the issue of holiday pay for part-year and irregular hours workers. The new regulations therefore provide that for part-year and irregular hours workers (as defined): They will accrue annual leave…