When it comes to paternity leave, the UK still lags significantly behind many of its European neighbours. The paternity pay in the UK whilst increasing incrementally every year means that for many it is not really an option particularly if they are the main breadwinner or on a significant salary. It is only 2 weeks […]
Sarah King Employment Solicitor
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News
Redundancy in maternity leave
Under Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental leave etc Regulations 1999, an employee on maternity leave whose role is being made redundant is entitled to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy. The recent case of Carnival Plc v Hunter [2024] EAT 167, has confirmed that this only applies to suitable alternate vacancies. The claimant […]
Employers’ liability for fraud
A new offence of ‘failure to prevent fraud’ has been created under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Under the Act an organisation will be criminally liable if an employee commits a fraud intending to benefit the organisation (ie the employer). Similar to harassment, there is a reasonable steps defence if the organisation […]
The right to disconnect
Before the general election, the Labour Party indicated an intention to follow similar models of the right to connect in Ireland and Belgium. The reality is that these two countries operate different ‘right to connect’ models. France has had a longer standing policy through legislation introduced in August 2016 for employers with 50 or more […]
What impact has the Flexible Working Act had?
What impact has the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 had since it came into force in April 2024? What changes has the act introduced and how it has affected employers? The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 came into force on 6th April 2024 and it made a number of key changes to the […]
New ACAS Guide for making reasonable adjustments for mental health
In what is national stress awareness month, ACAS has launched a new guide on making reasonable adjustments for mental health at work. It gives guidance for employers as to what reasonable adjustments are with examples and how to respond to requests for reasonable adjustments for mental health reasons and how best to manage employees with […]
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all my clients for their instructions in 2020 and to wish all my readers and contacts a Merry Christmas whatever this ends up looking like and a Happy and healthy 2021. 2020 has been a whirlwind of a year for many in HR and Employment law […]
Are restrictive covenants enforceable?
This is the million dollar question. It depends on whether the restrictions only go so far as is necessary to protect the business’ proprietary interest. There are many arguments on both sides about protecting the business assets when staff leave and preventing solicitation and poaching when acting for the employer and being able to freely […]
ACAS early conciliation extension
The 1st December 2020 brought not only the start of advent and the Elf on the Shelf for some but for employment lawyers saw changes made to the time periods for early conciliation through ACAS. ACAS early conciliation is mandatory before employees start many of the common employment law claims in the Employment Tribunal […]
World Mental Health Day
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 […]
(Our news section brings you the latest news on published judgments and cases which are all in the public domain. We only comment on these published cases and not cases of our actual clients. Publication of the case or comments is a public service designed to make the courts and tribunals more accessible and ensures justice is seen to be done. This is why court and tribunal judgments are published publicly.)