An EAT decision this month emphasised that employers should be proactive when looking for suitable alternative employment for employees in a redundancy situation. The High Court considered whether a business was vicariously...more
The government’s call for evidence on equality law outlines its equality policy objectives. Responses will influence the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. Key objectives include making equal pay rights effective for...more
As the Employment Rights Bill made its way to the House of Lords with significant government amendments, Parliament approved the neonatal care leave regulations. The government issued a consultation paper on ethnicity and...more
Parents of babies that need hospital care shortly after birth will be entitled to neonatal care leave from April 2025. Leave is a day one right but pay is subject to service and earnings requirements. Employers should...more
November provided a bit of respite for employers on the legislative front after the Employment Rights Bill’s introduction and the implementation of the duty to prevent sexual harassment in October. Employers will welcome EAT...more
The Court of Appeal in England and Wales has decided that employers do not have to conduct general workforce consultation for an individual redundancy dismissal to be fair. It overturns the EAT decision in De Bank Haycocks v...more
The Employment Rights Bill felt like the only game in town in October. Since its publication, the government has launched four consultations on different aspects of the Bill. The duty to prevent sexual harassment came into...more
Introducing an Employment Rights Bill within 100 days of taking office was one of the Labour government’s core pledges. The Bill was published today and includes many, but not all, of the policies in the “Plan to Make Work...more
Although we’re still waiting for the Employment Rights Bill (or were at the time of writing), there were some legislative developments over the summer. The government confirmed that the Tipping Act will come into force in...more
In Tesco Stores Ltd v USDAW the UK Supreme Court has reinstated an injunction stopping Tesco from dismissing and re-engaging employees on new terms to remove their contractual pay protection. The circumstances in which the...more
In Cairns v The Royal Mail Group Ltd, the UK EAT held that the possibility of delaying a disabled employee’s dismissal pending a reorganisation was relevant to whether his dismissal was justified. Although the employee was...more
In the usual rush before the summer holidays, July was a bumper month for employment lawyers and HR practitioners, with the excitement of the King’s Speech, draft guidance from the EHRC on the duty to prevent sexual...more
The King’s Speech confirms that the UK government will introduce an Employment Rights Bill into Parliament in the next session. This should be published within 100 days. Although the Speech and supporting papers provide more...more
Alongside the constant stream of election related news, there were two EAT decisions in June, dealing with “pool of one” redundancies and ill-health dismissals, which will be of interest. In future, there will be further...more
April was a smorgasbord of developments, with a UK Supreme Court case on detriments and industrial action and two EAT decisions on international jurisdiction. In Parliament, another family-friendly bill is proceeding with...more
As part of its “Smarter regulation to grow the economy” initiative, the UK government is consulting on further changes to TUPE. These include making it clear that TUPE applies to employees, not the wider category of workers,...more
April was a smorgasbord of developments, with a UK Supreme Court case on detriments and industrial action and two EAT decisions on international jurisdiction. In Parliament, another family-friendly bill is proceeding with...more
In March the government confirmed that changes to paternity leave, additional redundancy protection for pregnant employees and new parents and the right to carer’s leave will come into force in April as planned. We’re...more
An employee is protected against being dismissed or subjected to a detriment because they took or sought to take parental leave. The issue for the UK EAT in Hilton Foods Solutions Ltd v Wright was whether an employee had...more
Changing employment terms by dismissing and re-engaging employees has become increasingly controversial. The government does not want to make so-called “fire and re-hire” illegal, but it also wants employers to view the...more
In the run-up to Christmas, the government confirmed how carer’s leave and new protection against redundancy for pregnant employees and new parents will work. It announced changes to paternity leave in January and said that...more
Employers have to make reasonable adjustments if they apply a provision, criterion or practice that puts someone with a disability at a particular disadvantage. The duty only applies if the employer knows or could reasonably...more
The UK government has announced changes to employment law from 1 January 2024. It is branding some of the reforms, notably in relation to holiday and record keeping requirements, as a post-Brexit opportunity to remove...more
After a fairly quiet summer period, there were developments on several fronts in October. The new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment became law, although is not yet in force. The Supreme Court...more
Parliament returned from its summer recess in September, allowing proposals on preventing sexual harassment to progress and the right to request a more predictable contract to become law. Angela Rayner’s speech to the TUC...more