Employers often choose to insert restrictive covenants into their employment contracts as a mechanism to protect their business interests when their employees leave. They are generally more appropriate for those more senior employees who have access to confidential information and/or have key relationships with clients, suppliers or other employees. However, it appears that more and more employers are…
Further to my previous blog post about the introduction of the national living wage (NLW), I was interested to read that not all of us think the effective increase to the national minimum wage will have a positive impact on the UK or its employees. You will by now probably be aware that larger businesses…
If you have had the opportunity to read my previous blog post ‘Key Employment Law Changes’, you will be aware that from 1st April 2016, all employers are under a duty to comply with new obligations under the ‘National Living Wage’ regulations. It is important that small business owners in particular are aware of the…
As you may or may not be aware, each year in April the Government introduces new legislation in respect of employment rights and responsibilities. Below is a summary of the key changes being implemented this month. National Living Wage From 1st April 2016, workers aged 25 and over are entitled to the ‘national living wage’…
A Starbucks employee has won a disability discrimination case against her employers after problems arising from her dyslexia led her to make mistakes. Meseret Kumulchew was a supervisor at a Starbucks branch and one of her duties included taking the temperature of fridges and water at specific times and then entering the results in a…
You may remember some time ago we reported on the groundbreaking decision of the European Court of Justice in Lock v British Gas. The impact of this judgment was significant since this is the case that held that holiday pay should include provision for commission that the employee would have earned had they not been…
As you will probably be aware early conciliation is the requirement, introduced by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act (ERRA) that all prospective claimants must contact ACAS before they can present claim to the Employment Tribunal. Prospective claimants are provided with an EC certificate with a unique reference number at the conclusion of the Early…
One of the most important and often useful clauses within a contract of employment for employers in any trade is the ‘lay off/short-time working clause’. For those that are not aware, such a clause would usually entitle an employer who suffers a downturn in the work available, to either reduce the hours of the affected…
On 12 January Lord Justice Briggs published his interim report concerning the structure and operation of the civil courts. The full review is expected to be completed by the end of July 2016. Mr Justice Briggs has identified a “clear and pressing need to create an Online Court”. This is intended to deal with claims…
As widely reported a couple of weeks ago the European Court of Human Rights has handed down a significant judgment in the Romanian case of Barbulescu which confirms the right of employers to access the private communications of employees while they are at work. Mr Barbulescu, a Romanian national living in Bucharest, worked for a…