Today is World Mental Health Day and across social media today we have seen a variety of messages including from celebrities that “It’s ok not to be ok.” Talking about mental health on any day and not just World Mental Health Day is good because it raises awareness and helps to remove the long held […]
Holiday pay and voluntary overtime
In what is the latest in a number of holiday pay cases, the EAT has held that the NHS must include any overtime pay earned in the reference period in the calculation of holiday pay. This includes both non-guaranteed and voluntary overtime. The case of Flowers and others v East of England Ambulance Trust UKEAT/0235/17 […]
National minimum wage and sleeping workers
The National Minimum Wage legislation is complex and there have been a number of high profile cases in recent years particularly in the care industry concerning whether carers are entitled to the national minimum wage when sleeping or on call. The National Minimum laws contain highly complex rules about calculating the number of hours worked […]
Gross Misconduct dismissals
Employees get their full employment law rights after two years in employment (with some exceptions to the rule). Often an employer is mindful of this fact and will look to exit an employee who is not performing at the optimum level or for other reasons. The advice has always been not to take this course […]
The Evolution of Work
I am pleased to announcement the publishing of my first ever book. Hopefully one of many to come and not a fiction title like the bucket list but one which is written in simple language to assist business owners with employment law issues. It considers the impact of technology in the workplace. The book covers a […]
Out with a bang
Following on from my shorter Twitter post last week, Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been in the news over the past few days for a different reason. A departing employee of Twitter deleted his account before leaving the business. It was done for about 11 minutes as of course all the data was fully backed […]
Reference requests and regulatory references
So I know it is rare to have a hand written reference but it is common place for employers to be asked to provide a reference for that departing employee. Firstly, there is no obligation to supply a reference unless of course you have agreed to do so as part of a contractual exit package […]
Stress at work
Stress at work kept 51% of workers surveyed in a recent BUPA survey awake at night while 42% of those surveyed said stress at work had ruined their life. More than 53 % reported that a poor work-life balance made them feel unwell and 64% of respondents said that they would be more productive at […]
Time to disconnect?
We all know that switching off smartphones and tablets is good for our mental and physical well-being but most seem to find it hard to disconnect. The trend towards remote working and agile working may mean that increasing number of workers are logging in during personal time. So is it time to disconnect? A US […]
Make hot-desking work
Mobile technology allows some employees to complete tasks anywhere and with the increase in flexible working, some employers are downsizing office space and introducing hot-desking to save on costs. However, sometimes the space that people carve out in the office is territory that they wish to defend and people can get moody if their favourite […]