Following the European Court of Justice’s decision last year in the case of Lock v British Gas, judgment has now been given by the employment tribunal in Leicester. You will recall that the case was about Mr Lock was a salesman on a basic salary with variable commission paid in arrears. He could not earn commission […]
Sarah King Employment Solicitor
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News
Tribunal statistics for the final quarter of 2014
Tribunal statistics for October to December 2014 have now been published by the Ministry of Justice, which indicate that although there continues to be fewer claims, there has been a small increase in the number of claims in the last quarter. Statistics have also been released concerning fee remissions for the first time. The number of […]
Sick pay and constructive dismissal
An Employment Tribunal held that the Claimant was not too ill to resign while on long term sick leave and concluded that she had affirmed the contract following alleged breaches by her employer. The Claimant was a systems support analyst who joined the employer in October 2004. She was off sick with symptoms of stress, anxiety […]
Criminal record checks without the CRB
Whilst the Information Commissioner’s Employment Code of Practice has actively discouraged it for some time, it will from the 10th March 2015 be a criminal offence for an employer to require job applicants or existing employees to obtain a copy of their criminal records by means of a data subject access request. Some employers required […]
Uplift on injury to feelings awards
Having thought that the matter was quite settled following the Court of Appeal decision in Simmons v Castle [2012] which established that employment tribunal claims for injury to feelings were subject to the same 10% uplift as general damages in civil claims, we now have conflicting EAT decisions. In the latest EAT decision in the […]
Increase in compensation
New rates have been introduced for statutory redundancy payments, a week’s pay for basic award and for limits on unfair dismissal claims. These will take place for dismissals on or after 6th April 2015. The increases are in line with the RPI measure of inflation which was 2.3%. The new rate for a week’s pay […]
Unpaid director and shareholder was an employee
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Tribunal’s decision that a director and shareholder was an employee and a worker within the meaning of the Employment Rights Act 1996. This was notwithstanding the fact that the director had performed part-time work for the company without pay for over three years. The fact that the parties […]
Discriminatory bonuses
The Land Registry operated a bonus scheme which paid out £900 to eligible employees in 2012. One of the rules of the scheme was that those subject to a warning in respect of sickness absence during the relevant year were ineligible to receive a bonus. Those with disciplinary warnings could be ignored at the manager’s discretion […]
Genuine sickness absence?
According to a survey by healthcare provider Benenden Health, 60% of bosses do not believe the reason given by an employee for absence and 33% of managers scour social media after a sickness call to see if the employee is genuine. Having seen the worst excuses 1000 bosses and 1000 employees had heard for taking […]
Increases to maternity pay and sick pay
Various statutory payments will rise by 1% in the tax year 2015-2016. As of 5th April 2015, statutory maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave payments will all increase to £139.58 a week up from the existing £138.18. Statutory sick pay will also increase to £88.45 per week up from £87.55 on 6th April 2015.
(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.)