Whistleblowers have protection from dismissal and detriments if they blow the whistle to their employer. In addition, workers can blow the whistle to a prescribed person in order to get protection although the hoops the worker must go through to claim the protection are harder for those that blow the whistle in this way. This February, the Government has […]
Adding a Respondent to the Tribunal claim
The EAT has recently provided some clarity on the issue of ACAS EC and the interplay with the Tribunal’s discretion in amending and/or adding a Respondent to the Tribunal claim. In the first case, (Mist v Derby Community NHS Trust) the Claimant spelt the 1st Respondent’s name correctly on the ET1 but misspelt it on the […]
Privacy at work
There has been much media interest in a recent case from the European Court of Human Rights concerning the right to privacy at work. It is not the case that employer’s have the right to snoop on employee’s personal emails as some coverage seemed to suggest. Clearly if an employee is using his work email […]
Zero hours dismissals
The much talked about and long awaited protection against zero hours dismissals for workers is now in place. This is where employees are dismissed for not being exclusive to one contract. It is now unlawful to dismiss an employee on a zero hours contract if the principal reason is that he breached a contractual clause prohibiting […]
Guide to conducting workplace investigations
ACAS have issued a new guide to conducting workplace investigations. Employers and managers may find the guide useful as a starting point should a conduct issue arise in the workplace. Employers need to carry out a reasonable investigation into the allegations in line with the principles of BHS v Burchell. The ACAS Code of Practice COP1 […]
Mitigation of loss
In the recent case of Cooper Contracting Ltd v Lindsey, the EAT has given a useful summary of the principles concerning mitigation of loss. These are the principles that tribunals should apply when considering whether a successful claimant’s compensation should be reduced to reflect failure to mitigate loss in unfair dismissal claims. Mr Justice Langstaff, rejected the […]
National minimum wage v living wage
Ever wondered what the difference between the national minimum wage and the living wage is? Well here we explain the national minimum wage v living wage puzzle. April 2016 is due to see the introduction of the national living wage which will increase the national minimum wage to £7.20 for adults over the age of 25 […]
Employment Tribunal Statistics
The Ministry of Justice has published the employment tribunal statistics for the third quarter of 2015 for employment claims. The statistics cover the period July to September 2015 with the number of claims received by the tribunal similar to the previous quarter. During the period, 4,345 single claims were received by employment tribunals, which is […]
Guide to transgender staff
The Government has published a new guide to transgender staff. The guide is for employers and covers the recruitment and retention of transgender staff. The publication also assists managers with what can be a thorny issue of dealing with issues in the work place that arise when an employee makes the gender transition. Whilst not a frequent […]
Key decisions in 2016
We await a number of key decisions in 2016 which may change the scope of employment law issues. Amongst these decisions are the Court of Appeal decisions on whether or not the uplift of 10% applies to injury to feelings awards (Vento guidelines) for discrimination claims. We currently have two EAT decisions in favour and […]