Katharine deals with all aspects of Employment Law but specialises in providing non contentious employment advice and compliance to both small business ventures and larger companies. In particular, she is experienced in giving advice to companies concerning starting out in industry and reorganisation and can draft a wide range of company documentation in accordance with the individual needs of the business. Katharine specialises in making sure that employers have all their employment law and HR requirements in place and up to date. Her pleasant manner is combined with her knowledge of employment law issues from a legal perspective so that she makes sure that employers have maximum protection and immediate support in connection with all problems which they may encounter on a day to day basis

Regular voluntary overtime should be included in holiday pay

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The Court of Appeal has this week ruled that employers must consider any ‘regular’ voluntary overtime when calculating holiday pay, in addition to ‘non-guaranteed’ overtime, upholding the earlier decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

In Flowers and others v East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (2017) the Claimants, all employed by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (in a variety of roles) initially brought their claim to the Bury St Edmunds Employment Tribunal alleging that unlawful deductions had been made from their holiday pay.

They stated that the calculation of their holiday pay should account for overtime in two categories – non-guaranteed overtime, and voluntary overtime. The difference between the two in this case is that non-guaranteed overtime occurs when the employee is carrying out a task which must be completed after the end of the shift (for example dealing with an emergency services call for an ambulance), whereas voluntary overtime would be classed as additional shifts which the Claimant can choose to volunteer for (there was no requirement or expectation for them to do so however).

European Court of Justice gives OPINION on unpaid and untaken holidays

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Does a worker’s holiday entitlement continue to accrue into successive years if they do not take their annual leave because their employer will not pay them for these holidays? The Advocate General at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has answered ‘yes’ to this question, in a non-binding opinion. In the case of King v…

Do employees have to disclose their intention to compete?

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In the case of MPT Group Ltd v Peel and others [2017] EWHC 1222 (Ch), the High Court was asked to decide whether employees were under a duty to disclose their intention to compete to their employer. The facts of the case were that Mr Peel and Mr Birtwistle were employed by MPT Group Ltd…

Deliveroo makes changes to contracts for UK Couriers

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Following on from my colleague Martin Malone’s article back in March, takeaway delivery Company Deliveroo have now removed the clause in their self-employed courier’s contracts (or ‘supplier agreements’), which stated that the couriers would not be permitted to challenge their self-employed status at an Employment Tribunal. New contracts (which are now just four pages long)…

Disability Discrimination: Adjustments for candidate with Asperger’s Syndrome

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In the recent case of Government Legal Services v Brookes UKEAT/0302/16, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) upheld the decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET) that requiring a job applicant with Asperger’s to take a multiple-choice test as part of the recruitment process, amounted to indirect discrimination. Background The facts of the case were that the Government Legal…

Can workers receive payment for ‘sleeping’ at work?!

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The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently considered this question, more specifically whether workers are entitled to the national minimum wage when ‘on-call’ (or sleeping!) at work. In the case of Focus Care Agency v Roberts, along with two other cases heard at the same time (Frudd v The Partington Group Ltd and Royal Mencap Society…

EAT Judgment: There can be no disability-related harassment claim without first establishing the disability

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In the recent case of Peninsula Business Service Ltd v Baker, the Claimant had advised his manager that he had dyslexia and had also provided a psychologist’s report confirming the diagnosis. The Employer’s occupational health provider prepared a report confirming that the Claimant was likely to be considered disabled and recommended reasonable adjustments, however the Claimant’s…

Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017

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On 6th December 2016, the Government published the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, which will require large private sector businesses to publish gender-based pay statistics each year. These Regulations are likely to come into force (subject to parliamentary approval) on 6th April 2017, and will essentially require employers with 250 or…

National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2017

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Following on from my post in October 2016 which detailed the increase to the National Minimum Wage amongst other key Employment Law Changes, the draft National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations have now been published and will come into force from 1st April 2017. In brief, the changes are as follows: The National Living Wage for…