Category: Employment law

Q. Who has to be informed and consulted on a TUPE transfer?

When a TUPE transfer occurs, before the transfer, both the old and new employers must by law, inform and consult with a recognised trade union or employee representatives. To ‘inform’ is when you tell your affected employees or their representatives the facts about the transfer. To ‘consult’ is when you talk and listen to affected employees or their representatives on expected ‘measures’ which are effectively changes that could affect employees and genuinely consider their views. There is no fixed length of time for employers to inform and consult employees and…
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Q. Who owns an employee’s Linkedin contacts if they were created as a result of their employment?

Is it the employer or the employee? LinkedIn contacts are key for many employers, as they may use LinkedIn to generate new business contacts. Departing employees could use the LinkedIn contacts that they created during their employment for their own, or a competitors’ benefit. So many employers will want their employment contractual terms and procedures to protect their business and its intellectual property. Many businesses will include standard confidentiality provisions, which will prohibit the use of confidential information belonging to the company. They may also have terms which specifically mention…
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Q. Do we need to have a Menopause Policy?

In short, yes! New guidance on menopause in the workplace, setting out employer’s legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010, was issued in February by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Many women report experiencing negative impacts of menopausal symptoms in the workplace, with some even feeling compelled to leave their jobs as a result. Research shows that one in ten women surveyed who have worked during the menopause have left their jobs due to symptoms, while two thirds of working women between the ages of 40 and 60…
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Q. What is Constructive Dismissal?

You’ve probably heard the term ‘constructive dismissal’ before, but are you clear on what it actually means? Constructive dismissal is the term that applies when a change to an employee’s working conditions or unfair treatment forces them to quit. Sometimes this is confused with unfair dismissal, which is where you fire the employee. With constructive dismissal, the employee feels “forced” out of the business due to conditions beyond their control (such as their employer’s behaviour). Usually, an employee can only claim constructive dismissal if they’ve been employed with a company…
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Employment Law changes April 2024
Employment contracts
Emma Browning

Employment Law Changes for April 2024

Here’s our summary of the new Employment Laws that come into effect on the 1st April Pay and Statutory Payments National Minimum Wage updates which come into effect on the 1st April 2024 NMW Rate Increase Amount % increase National Living Wage (21 and over) £   11.44 9.8% 18-20 Year Old Rate £     8.60 14.8% 16-17 Year Old Rate £     6.40 21.2% Apprentice Rate £     6.40 21.2% Accommodation Offset £     9.99 9.8%   All Statutory Family Leave payments; maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay will increase as…
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balanced scales
Employment contracts
elinabyrne

Can you afford a £45,000 fine from the Home Office?

For not having the right to work documentation in place for every employee that works for you. As an employer, you have a legal obligation to check the right to work documentation for every employee that works for you. Currently, if you fail to have the right documentation on file for every employee that works for you, as a first offence, you could be fined £15,000 per employee who doesn’t have the right documentation on file. This fine has been in place since 2014, and we routinely check this documentation…
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Employment law
elinabyrne

Nationwide’s return to office mandate and how it backfired with a £350K tribunal bill

Nationwide Building Society has been ordered to pay more than £350,000 in compensation to a former employee who was made redundant after refusing to abide by its return-to-office (RTO) mandate. Jayne Follows, who the tribunal heard was a “top performer” at work and carer to an elderly and disabled mother, successfully brought a claim of indirect disability discrimination and unfair dismissal against the bank. The result ends a five-year dispute between the two parties, which started in 2017 after Follows was told she was at risk of redundancy for refusing…
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Q. I have heard that there are some changes to the Equality Act that will come into force in October 2024, what are these changes?

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…
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Q. I’ve recently had a sales person leave our team, and I want to withhold their bonus as they are now on Garden Leave – can I do this?

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…
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Q. To resign or not to resign – that is the question!

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…
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