Employment Law Resources

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 Covid-19 vaccine being rolled out across the country, many are starting to wonder when it will be their turn.

To date, vulnerable, front-line, care home staff and social workers have been at the front of the queue, with plans now afoot to reach the rest of the UK’s 66 million residents.

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.

With the furlough scheme being extended and on-going decisions around the safe return to the workplace, home working and potential redundancies, we have updated this guide to cover the key points that your business may wish to consider.

With lockdown being eased, the CJRS changing and workplaces beginning to open up again we have created this guide to summarise the key points that your business may wish to consider.

Explains the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and summarises the additional support measures currently available to businesses.

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.

With an ageing population leading to a need for many people to work longer, coupled with the abolition of the compulsory retirement age, the average age of people leaving the workplace has increased steadily over the last two decades. In fact, the over 50s now make up over a third of the working population.

The figures released by the HMRC about the nation’s income and taxation during 2015/16, revealed some fascinating insights into the UK’s finances. But the figures also shed light on the continuing pay gap experienced between men and women. According to HMRC, 57% of all income tax payers were men in 2015/16, contributing almost three quarters (73%) of the total £178 billion income tax bill. These figures are in line with the 2014/15 statistics, suggesting there was little real shift in the gender pay gap between the two years.

A recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights has provided further specific clarification of companies’ responsibilities in respect of their employee email policies. Katie Ash, Head of Employment Law said, “The ECHR ruling in case of Bogdan Bărbulescu could shape extent to which firms can monitor employees’ private communications”. In essence, the court ruling says that not only must a company policy inform employees that they reserve the right to monitor employee emails, but they must also let employees know when they are doing so.

In April 2017 employers with over 250 staff became obliged to report on gender pay gaps. Here are some tips that your business may wish to consider.

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.

The recent case of two young lovers whose amorous emails to each other were mistakenly copied to the wider world emphasises all too clearly why firms need an “email, internet and social media use” policy for all members of staff.

An employer was recently held liable for injuries sustained by their employee when they were travelling between clients.

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.

Download Banner Jones Employer Assist PDF

Companies are within their rights to monitor the private online activities of their employees when they are in the office.

A chef jailed for biting two police officers during a drunken altercation has won a claim for unfair dismissal from the hotel where he worked.

The Court of Appeal recently found that an employer was not liable for the severe injuries caused by an employee who, while at work and apparently as a prank, had put highly inflammable thinning agent on to the clothes of a workmate and ignited them.