Employment Law Resources

Welcome to the Spring 24 edition of our Business First magazine.

People often talk about how certain groups are under-represented within workforces, but what steps can an employer take to redress this? Head of Employment Law at Banner Jones Solicitors, Katie Ash, discusses how employers can use a Positive Action approach to eliminate or reduce discrimination and help these groups access employment or training as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.

In November 2023 the government announced a minimum wage increase which was focused on protecting low-paid workers’ living standards in light of the current economic climate and cost of living crisis. The changes are due to come in to force on the 1st April 2024 - is your business ready?

There are many factors to consider when selling a business and it isn’t something that should be entered into lightly. Our free guide runs through some of the important considerations this involves.

As we enter 2024, we’ve been reflecting on some of the significant changes in employment law we have seen over the course of 2023 which employers need to be aware of. These include amendments to the flexible working regime, further deliberations about employment status by the Supreme Court and considerable changes to the calculation of holiday pay. 2024 looks set to be a big year for change in employment law, so here we have done a roundup of key developments in 2023 and have highlighted the ‘ones to watch’ in 2024.

Consultation is a key part of any fair redundancy process. It is therefore vital that employers considering redundancies plan how they will consult their employees about any proposed redundancies at an early stage.

New regulations extending flexible working rights were put before Parliament on 11^th December 2023. From the 6th April 2024, all employees will no longer need to have 26 weeks’ continuous employment in order to make a flexible working request.

Our Business Legal Services team pride themselves on being able to offer high quality ‘city style’ advice in a user friendly, cost effective manner to local, national and international businesses.

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that employees can claim for a series of underpayments of holiday pay, even where there has been a gap of more than three months between different underpayment periods. This could lead to many UK workers being entitled to thousands of pounds in miscalculated holiday pay.

Our quarterly business magazine is packed full of features including creating a supportive workplace, sustainable buildings, legally compliant HR and EDI essentials.

Women make up a significant portion of the workforce, so it is hardly surprising that gender equality in the workplace has become an important topic in recent decades.

Most companies work hard to create a safe and productive workplace, but how can businesses stay up to date on these policy and initiative changes, as well as mitigating risks?

Would removing non-compete clauses improve worker’s rights? Theoretically, they’re supposed to be in place for C-suite level employees to prevent them taking business secrets to competitors. So, is it necessary to make low-level workers sign non-competes too? Is it too harsh?

A right royal holiday clash

Holiday pay for the additional bank holiday on 8th May to celebrate the upcoming coronation is giving employers a headache before a toast has been raised to the new King. 

In this issue we cover lots of topical business issues and challenges from Mergers, Layoffs, Going Global, Commercial Property and more

Employment relationships in the modern working world are vast and varied: from workers, to employees, to consultants, to freelancers. On top of this, businesses operate at all times of day and night, many internationally, and following Covid-19, there is an ever-increasing ability for many individuals to work anywhere in the world.

Unless you actively avoid the news, you’re probably familiar by now with the headline-grabbing controversy caused by entrepreneur and Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk, after he announced that half of the company’s workforce were to be ‘laid off’ as part of cost cutting measures.

Christmas is often the busiest time of the year for many businesses, so the extra support from temporary staff, ‘Christmas temps,’ around this time, is often appreciated. As an employer, however, it is important you know the rules inside out to keep you on the right side of employment law.

Work Christmas parties are a staple on the corporate calendar, but it is always important to remember that even though it is a Christmas party, it is also a work event. As an employer, it is your job to ensure the rules are followed. Not only will this protect your employees from damaging their reputation, but it can save you the misfortune of having your business's reputation damaged or having to discipline an employee.

Katie Ash explains and answers some questions about settlement agreements.

Katie Ash, head of Employment Law, answers the most commonly asked questions about redundancy.

Here Sara Patel, an employment law expert at Banner Jones, helps to separate the facts from the fiction, and clarifies the law and the role of employers in relation to a few of the most common workplace myths.

Workers’ rights have long since been protected by law… to an extent. However, in 2019 the Conservative government promised to introduce a unified Employment Bill which would hold British businesses accountable across the board.

Running a business can be challenging, and never more so than when decisions need to be made that potentially affect the lives and livelihoods of employees.

Sadly, however, it is part and parcel of the day job, and most business owners and decision makers will grapple with the prospects of having to let people go, and the subsequent redundancy process, at some point during their career.

As such a large part of an employee’s life is spent at work, it’s important that employers play an active role in ensuring that their workers develop and maintain good mental wellbeing and a healthy relationship with their place of work.

This is particularly important post-pandemic, when it is widely acknowledged that employees' health has suffered because of lockdowns, job uncertainty, and the mandate to work from home.

After all, healthy and well-motivated employees will have an equally positive impact on the productivity and effectiveness of a business!

One of the most widely publicised phenomena caused by the pandemic is what has now become known as The Great Resignation.

According to a poll undertaken by recruiter Randstad UK in November of last year, almost 7 in every 10 employees (69%) said they felt confident to move to a new job within just a couple of months.

The cost of defending Employment Tribunal cases can vary significantly and could cost your business anything from £10,000 to £50,000. Then if the claimant is successful, there will be the cost of compensation on top of this. The average award for an unfair dismissal case in the UK is a little under £7,000, with claims resulting from discrimination costing significantly more. Businesses also need to consider the hidden cost of employment law claims caused by the damage it can do to their reputation as an employer and as a business that clients and customers want to work with. Often this cost can be more damaging than the award itself.

.

Most employers will be familiar with the flexible working regime as it has been used in the workplace for almost two decades, and although hybrid working is relatively new, it is important to note that it is simply a type of flexible working.   The statutory flexible working regime allows any employee with more than 26 weeks’ service to request to work flexibly and sets out a framework that you must follow where a request is made by an eligible employee.

From 11 November 2021, all care home workers and anyone entering a care home must be fully vaccinated, unless they are medically exempt under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021.

In our latest blog Head of Employment Law, Katie Ash, goes through the eight key steps to lawfully recruiting someone into your business.  It can be a costly mistake to ignore the rules and get this wrong.

Flexible working has been at the forefront of many businesses since the pandemic began, and for many it is now time to formalise a flexible working policy. This guide tells you how to handle flexible working requests but we can also assist with a policy if required.

For many business owners and decision makers, the lockdown restrictions introduced as a result of the Covid-19 crisis have provided them with an unprecedented opportunity to review their operations.

To the dismay of employees, but a decision arguably welcomed by employers, the Supreme Court has recently ruled in cases Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad and another (T/A Clifton House Residential Home) that sleep-in shift workers are not ‘working’ when they are asleep. This in turn means that care workers should only be paid the National Minimum Wage hourly rate on sleep-in shifts when they are awake for the purposes of actively working.

Over time, the gap between women’s and men’s median hourly earnings has been narrowing. In fact, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) it has fallen by over a quarter among full-time employees in the last decade.

For many businesses, calculating holiday pay is a straight-forward process. Employers are, within the parameters of the law, able to dictate how many annual leave days or hours a staff member is entitled to.

On the 20th February 2021, the Supreme Court handed down its Judgment in the long awaited Uber case (Uber BV and Others v Aslam and Others). All six Judges unanimously ruled that the Uber drivers were workers, not self-employed contractors and as a result were entitled to basic employment rights like National Minimum Wage, holiday pay and sick pay.

With the country now in its third lockdown, it is clear that the hospitality sector has been hit the hardest and with no sign of hotels, pubs and restaurants reopening soon, employers in this sector will be almost certainly be facing some tough decisions about their staff in the coming weeks and months.

After a lengthy transition period, the UK has now left the EU with a deal agreed. While many possible scenarios have been discussed at length in recent years, until now we have been limited to speculation and conjecture in terms of what the outcome might be. Not to mention how it might affect businesses and, more specifically, employees.

Employers need to protect the mental health of those who work alone. This blog gives you an overview of what you should be considering.

For many, 2020 will go down in history as the year that changed everything, and one of the most significant changes was the way in which we work.

As the country continues to grapple with the evolving situation relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses and business owners are reacting in real time to the government advice relating to social distancing and non-essential travel.

In a previous article, we looked at the impact of the country’s ageing population on the UK workforce, and the subsequent impact that it was having on employers and businesses large and small.

We have put together a Disciplinary Action Guide for Employers featuring procedures, problems and grievances.

We have put together a redundancy procedure guide for employers to outline the full process, selecting people for redundancy, common mistakes and vital information you should consider to be able to make informed decisions.