Back in 2006 the law on TUPE was clarified (if not rewritten) and part of the employment law changes scheduled for this year was that the TUPE law would be rewritten again. There was talk of an October start date for the new regulations but it has been announced today that this will be delayed […]
Sex Discrimination during pregnancy
ACAS have written an interesting article today concerning discrimination women face both during pregnancy and after childbirth. The article highlights the results of a survey carried out by another employment law firm which showed that 51% of the 2000 women surveyed felt that attitudes towards them changed when they became pregnant and 66% felt that since […]
Employee engagement
Part of the beauty of adopting employment law best practice is that not only can it save the business costs in the long run but it can increase employee engagement if handled correctly. It can work in the converse if you are the sort of business that has never had written contracts of employment or […]
Service for unfair dismissal
A recent case before the EAT is a useful reminder of the consequences of re-engagement and reinstatement and the possibility that this can extinguish the original dismissal. In this case Mr Lipinski was dismissed for misconduct in March 2010. He presented an Employment Tribunal Claim for unfair dismissal and meanwhile secured employment elsewhere. That new […]
Unfair dismissal limits
There appears to be some confusion amongst the public over the new unfair dismissal limits. By way of a reminder, the law changed on 29th July to cap the value of unfair dismissal claims at either £74,200 or 52 weeks’ pay, which ever is lowest. The cause for confusion is when the limit applies. The […]
Presenting an Employment Tribunal Claim
HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) have issued guidance on the presentation of an employment tribunal claim post 29th July 2013. You can read the guidance here. In addition, there are now new format ET1s for presenting the claim or ET3s for responding to a claim which can be downloaded from the HMCTS site. The […]
Settlement Agreements
The new settlement agreements are now of course in place to replace “compromise agreements”. These apply to all employment law claims. There are of course no such stringent requirements to settle an ordinary contractual dispute before the County Court. The age old rules of offer, acceptance and consideration apply here. Rather unfortunate that the firm […]
Guide to Compromise Agreements/Settlement Agreements
Alongside the Code of Practice on Settlement Agreements formerly known as Compromise Agreements, ACAS has published a helpful guide. It is not a legal requirement to follow this and it does not have the same status as the Code of Practice I blogged about on the 23rd July 2013. This may however, assist employers with […]
Costs in the Employment Tribunal
Costs appear to be a more common feature in the ET nowadays with Judges more willing to impose a costs order. Pre 29th July the rules were unchanged but the shift appeared to come more in attitude in the judiciary. Now of course, the rules focus more on efforts to settle and weeding out claims […]
Postal workers may strike
The news today suggests that Postal Workers are to vote on whether to strike in the Autumn over the privatisation plans for Royal Mail. The postal sector has a strong union presence with the Communication Workers Union being the key union. Like with any strike action, the Union must call a ballot of its members […]