Employment Law in the United Kingdom – what differences are there?
Is it a United Kingdom? We thought we’d look in detail at the main differences in Employment Law between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and have updated this for July 2019. Generally there is very little difference in employment law between England and Wales, some differences in Scotland but there are some important differences
Small Business owners – how to work well with freelancers
With the ongoing shift towards employers using freelancers / contractors instead of employing PAYE workers and employees in the current uncertain climate, we look at how small business owners can get the best out of their relationship with freelancers, for the benefit of both parties.
AWR – end-hirer liable for underpayment of an agency worker
Since the Agency Workers Regulations were introduced on 1st October 2011 very few cases have yet come to Employment Tribunal (the ones that have are detailed here), but in September 2014 an Employment Tribunal found that the end-hirer of the agency worker, not the agency that actually employed the worker, had to compensate the worker
Government funded Occupational Health Service for SMEs
In early 2013, the government unveiled details of an occupational health scheme aimed to save Employers money and help tackle long-term sickness absence in the workplace. Figures from 2011 estimated that sickness costs UK Employers £9 billion a year.
This summer the Government announced the new scheme – the Health and Work Service – would
Antenatal Leave for fathers/partners available from 1st October 2014
For a long time pregnant employees have had a legal right to paid time off for antenatal appointments and from 1st October 2014, prospective fathers/partners, including same sex partners, of pregnant women and intended parents in surrogacy arrangements, will have the right to take time-off to accompany their partner to two antenatal appointments.
Employees do
Can love and relationships in the office work?
It is not uncommon for romances to blossom between work colleagues – generally this causes little problems but with several cases hitting the news recently, we thought we’d take a look at what can sometimes be a quagmire for employees, employers and freelancers. It can be difficult for employers to object to workplace relationships, although
New sanctions for care sector minimum wage handouts
We know that many workers in the care sector get a bad deal with regards to their pay and hours of work.
The National Minimum Wage legislation is certainly not straightforward and sometimes it can be difficult to establish what hours you should be paid for and there are, unfortunately, employers in the care sector
Is obesity a disability? It can be!
When considering if a worker is disabled or not – for the purposes of being covered by the Equality Act 2010 – employers must consider the impact of any physical or mental impairment on the worker’s “ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”. But can obesity really be a disability?
In the 2013 Walker v SITA Information
Deciphering your legal status and IR35
Updated 2016.
Many new freelancers and contractors may be vaguely aware of IR35, but not know when and where it applies. Before getting too intimate with the ins and outs of the IR35 legislation, the first step is to know if IR35 is even relevant to your situation.
We give you more details about IR35
Say Thank You to your staff – employee ‘experience’, motivation
Say thank you!
In a recent survey by recruitment website monster.co.uk, taken by 2000 workers and 500 employers/managers, more than 58% of British workers don’t believe they are thanked enough at work.
Is that surprising? 54% said this made them feel unappreciated and 41% said they felt demotivated as a result of this.
While 75%
Changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 supports reformed offenders entering the workplace. Following a specified period of time – which varies according to the sentence – an offender’s cautions and convictions become ‘spent’ and the offender is regarded as rehabilitated.
This means the Act treats a rehabilitated person as if he or she had never
Latest Employment Tribunal News
Several changes have been made to the Employment Tribunal proceedings in England, Wales and Scotland over the past two years. Further changes will also come into effect in the near future so here we look at the latest Tribunal news!
We look at all the changes here.
Introduced on 6th April 2014, but made fully
Employing school leavers – a change in the law for young people
From the start of the 2013/14 Academic year the Government changed the law on how long young people are required to stay in education or training.
Raising the Participation Age‘ (RPA) means that young people must now stay in education or training longer.
‘Raising the Participation Age‘ (RPA) means that young people must now stay
What languages should be spoken at work
With the diversity of workforces in the UK today, there will inevitably be many workers of different nationalities and with different languages and cultures. This will mean that employers may need to deal with issues regarding what language is used in the workplace, particularly if many workers do not have English as their first language.
Unison lose their bid to overturn tribunal fees
In January 2011 the Government announced it was going to reform “workplace disputes” practices with the aim of encouraging both employers and employees to resolve disputes themselves. This was in order to reduce the number of tribunal claims, and to speed up the claims that do arise.
Traditionally, Employment Tribunals are used to help resolve workplace disputes
Should employers fear the office Christmas party?
Your Christmas Party is normally pretty lively and good fun, but employers need to consider various factors beforehand, so there are no problems (yawn – but bear with us here!).
Unfortunately, because of various pieces of legislation, employers need to have a policy in place setting out the standards of acceptable behaviour for their workers
European Union decides surrogate mothers can take maternity leave
The European Court of Justice in 2013 advised that a British woman who had a child through a surrogate mother is entitled to paid maternity leave.
Women who adopt a child in the UK are entitled to the same statutory adoption pay as pregnant mothers, but families who choose to use a surrogate mother to
‘Without Prejudice’ rules explained (and Settlement Agreements)
‘Without Prejudice’ Rules have existed for a long time and are used by an employer when they and an employee have a dispute in their working relationship which they are trying to resolve in the most amicable way. We look at what this means and how it can be used here.
The ‘Without Prejudice’ Rules
RIDDOR changes from 1st October 2013
RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations and is one of the important pieces of UK Health and Safety legislation.
Some major revisions to the Regulations were made on 1st October 2013, which we summarise here.
Including…. RIDDOR requires employers (and freelancers) to report and keep records of work-related accidents which
Employee Shareholder Contracts now in force!
A new type of employment contract – the Employee Shareholder Contract – came to life on 1st September 2013 (as part of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill). UPDATED 2016.
Under this new contract employees give away some of their employment rights in exchange for receiving shares between £2,000 – £50,000 in their company (and benefiting from tax advantages on these shares).
Military Reservists get more employment protection
At the beginning of July 2013 the Ministry of Defence published a whitepaper aimed at helping them plan their resourcing requirements when reserve forces are deployed on operations. The whitepaper made several suggestions relating to reservists normal employment and made a commitment to provide employers with fewer than 250 staff “more notice [of when their
Confidential pre-termination negotiations and Settlement Agreements
Many employers, if a relationship with an employee is not going well, for whatever reason, may consider ending that relationship and will hope to start a conversation with an employee to end their employment by mutual agreement (which usually comes with an appropriate sum of money as compensation), rather than pursue a dismissal in other ways.
From 29th July 2013
New Employment Tribunal rules from 29th July
Several important changes will happen to Employment Tribunals at the end of July. Firstly, and most importantly, Tribunal fees are being introduced. In addition, some Employment Tribunal Rules are changing and Compensatory Award limits are changing. Here we’ll run through the changes.
The new rules:
A claim from an applicant will be rejected if it is
Criminal record checks
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which replaced the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) in late 2012 is there to help employers make safe recruitment decisions, and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children.
The DBS are responsible for:
Processing requests for criminal records checks which they
New Equal Pay ruling regarding comparators is good news for female workers
A ruling by the Supreme Court at the end of June has effectively handed women the legal right to demand the same pay as male colleagues doing a different job of ‘equal value’. (for more info on this see our article here about Equality issues).
The Supreme Court ruled in favour of more than 200 female
Can an Agency worker become permanent at the company they work for?
An Agency worker (temp) is usually contracted and paid by the Agency who employs them, and the Company that hires them pays a fee to the Agency for their work.
Here though, we consider if it is possible for an agency worker to be seen as a permanent employee of the company they work for (not the
Should you let an employee audio-record a disciplinary or grievance meeting?
Read our latest advice here about whether you should let an employee audio-record a disciplinary or grievance meeting or appeal; and whether the employer should do this too.
There could be various reasons you, or your Employer, may wish to audio-record important work meetings/hearings, including the hope that this will support your/their position should a
Disability Discrimination – what makes a worker disabled under the Equality Act 2010?
When considering if a worker is disabled or not for the purposes of being covered by the Equality Act 2010, Employers must consider the impact of any physical or mental impairment (disability) on the workers “ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”. We look at all the details you need to know here.
Agency Workers have discrimination rights under the AWR
In September 2012 an Employment Tribunal found that an agency worker had discrimination rights and awarded her a large sum of money for disability discrimination and unfair dismissal against the Company she was employed to work at. We look at the details of the case here.
In Pegg v Camden Council, the Tribunal heard
Interrupted breaks can still count as rest under the WTR
An important case about compensatory rest and rest breaks took place recently. The case of Hughes v Corps of Commissionaires Management Ltd concerned a security guard who worked 12-hour shifts on his own (other security guards employed there worked other shifts) and who regularly had interrupted breaks. We look at the details and what
What would UK Employment Law be like without Europe?
Following the Referendum in June 2016 we have updated our article that looks at what impact Europe has had on our existing UK employment laws in our article here, what laws are derived from Europe and where the Government has chosen to enhance EU regulations, what laws are derived solely from the UK and what
Can an employee be dismissed because of their political opinions?
The European Court of Human Rights says no, you can’t be dismissed because of your political opinions!
In the case of Redfearn v the United Kingdom, the Court of Human Rights found that the UK had violated article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights – the right to freedom of assembly and association
Short-time working and lay-offs – can you use them?
It can be quite common that during a bad patch an employer, rather than make redundancies, may choose to make other changes to your Employment contract including lay-offs and short-time working.
Two options your employer may consider are Lay-offs and Short-time working – and we look at what this means in our article here.
Lay-offs
Important AWR case gets to Tribunal
Finally at the end of 2012, over a year after the Agency Workers Regulations were introduced in October 2011, a case about the Swedish Derogation model came to Tribunal. We look at this case and subsequent cases regarding the AWR in our article here.
This case found Recruitment Agency Monarch Personnel Refuelling defending a claim
Leadership Tips for Entrepreneurs!
Have a read of our new article, one of an occasional series on Management and Leadership Tips for Entrepreneurs/Company Directors/Managing Directors.
Have you heard of the Living Wage?
The only legislation that currently exists in the UK regarding pay is the National Minimum Wage legislation which says that:
The minimum wage is a legal right that covers almost all workers above compulsory school leaving age. There are different minimum wage rates for different age groups of workers as follows:
The main
Hours and rest breaks for UK goods vehicle drivers – Part 1
Part 1. There are different rules for drivers depending on what they drive. All the rules in our article here only apply to vehicles that are used for the ‘carriage of goods by road’. This is defined as any journey made entirely, or in part, on roads open to the public.
In Part 1
Volunteers may soon be protected by discrimination laws
Currently all employees and workers in the European Union are entitled to work without being discriminated against in relation to ‘protected characteristics’, under the European Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation.
These ‘protected characteristics’ include:
Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Race
Religion or belief
Sex
Sexual orientation
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and
Everything you need to know about references (part 2)
In our second article on References here we look at what obigations a previous employer has whey they provide a reference.
The Data Protection Employment Practices Code recommends:
That employers have a policy on giving references that includes a requirement that “all those giving corporate references must be satisfied that the worker wishes
Everything you need to know about references (part 1)
In our first article on References here we look at whether Employers have to seek references when recruiting and whether there is a legal obligation for a previous employer to give a reference to their ex-employee?
Includes….. Is there a legal obligation for a previous employer to give a reference to their ex-employee?
There is
Trust and Confidence – what does it really mean, and what happens when it breaks down?
We look at the Implied Terms in your contract of employment that are probably not written down anywhere, but are understood to exist because of the conduct of the parties, which includes Trust and Confidence. They should be fairly obvious to both parties to the contract. If there’s nothing clearly agreed between you and your
For what reasons can I be made redundant?
In this article we look at the scenarios when your employer is considering making redundancies, and in what situations can they make you redundant?
The Employment Rights Act 1996 (the law that currently covers making redundancies) says that, ‘an employee is dismissed by reason of redundancy if the dismissal is wholly or mainly attributable to
What is religious discrimination?
Religious discrimination employment law cases have been in the news for most of the last year and with four important UK cases going to the European Court of Human Rights in September 2012, we thought we’d have a look at this in more detail here. Religion or belief is a ‘protected characteristic’ that should
Peter Stringfellow – how he is clarifying employment law
Updated for 2013.
Last year there was an important employment law case about employment status that showed that Employment Tribunals would focus on the actual reality of working relationships when determining whether someone is self-employed or not, and not focus on what the contractual documentation actually said (Autoclenz v Belcher, see the details here).
This
Redundancy and ‘suitable alternative employment’ explained
In this article we look at the concept of an Employer providing ‘suitable alternative employment’ when an individuals job is being made redundant – what does it mean, how do you offer it, when is not suitable.
I’ve been overpaid! What should I do?
If you have been accidentally overpaid by your employer, it may seems like a lucky bonus, but don’t assume you can keep the money! Here we look at overpayments for Employees and Freelancers/Sole-Traders.
For employees
Where an employer has made an accidental overpayment of wages or expenses (including holiday pay), the legal position is that
Have you been dismissed while working abroad?
If you work abroad you may now be able to claim unfair dismissal in the UK if you are dismissed. With unemployment rising in the UK, British workers may have to look abroad for employment, and of course many multinational companies have employees constantly moving across international borders.
Large Scale Dismissals – are they legal?
With dismissal notices being given out by Shropshire Council to all their staff earlier this month, we thought we’d take a closer look at what this means and if it could happen more frequently in the current climate.
Equal Opportunties and Discrimination (Equality Act 2010)
The new Equality Act came into force on 1st October 2010 and replaces all previous equality legislation. The Equality Act covers the same groups that are protected by existing equality legislation, however, these groups will now be called “protected characteristics” (PCs). The new Act also extends protections to some other characteristics and introduces other changes. Updated for 2011.
