Foreign holidays are currently banned, and returning travellers have to quarantine. However, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed the government is planning to let people travel abroad soon, potentially from 17th May. You’ve just got people back to work so you can’t afford Covid-19 related absences. Where do you stand? Here we answer six important…
Changes to right to work checks
To prevent illegal working, employers must check that all prospective employees have the right to work in the UK before they start employment. Your business can be fined £20,000 for each person you employ who does not have the right to work in the UK. You are excused from paying if you can show that…
An employee dismissed because of Covid-19 concerns is awarded over £23,000
The claimant, Mr Gibson, worked as a chef in a restaurant owned by Lothian Leisure. The restaurant closed temporarily in March 2020 owing to the first Covid-19 lockdown and furloughed Mr Gibson. It asked Mr Gibson to return when it reopened. He was concerned about catching Covid-19 at work and passing it onto his clinically…
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Tribunal awards £17,000 to an employee called ‘old woman’
Mrs Witt (W) worked as a shop manager at New Quay Honey Farm Ltd (N) from 2002. On Friday 16th August 2019, Mr Cooper, the owners’ son, became angry when W attempted to discuss her pay with him. She said she was leaving and walked out. C followed her and flicked a ‘V sign’ in…
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Sharp rise in employment tribunal claims
The employment tribunal quarterly statistics for October to December 2020 show that single claims have increased by 25% and multiple claims by 82% compared with the same quarter in 2019. The number of single claims (13,225) also represents the highest number lodged in a quarter since January to March 2013. It is likely that this…
Comments about weight and diet were harassment
In Ms K Moth v The Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall, a police officer whose boss advised her to “lose weight” and “stop drinking gallons of Coke” has won her claim for harassment at the tribunal. Why were these comments unlawful? Kerry Moth (‘M’), a detective police constable with Devon and Cornwall Police (DCP),…
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The Uber case – what now?
Last month the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the employment tribunal decision that a group of 35 Uber drivers were workers for the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Working Time Regulations 1998, and the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. The court also confirmed that the drivers’ working time includes any period when they are logged in…
April 2021 rate changes
NLW and NMW rates from 1st April 2020 From 4th April 2021, the standard weekly rates of statutory maternity, adoption, paternity, parental bereavement and shared parental pay will increase to £151.97. From 6th April 2021, the weekly statutory sick pay rate will increase to £96.35 and the maximum amount of a “week’s pay” (used to…
Hybrid working
As we adapt to the new working environment, many of you are considering asking your people to split their time between working from home and attending the workplace. Employees may have been working flexibly because of the pandemic and you may wish to make this arrangement permanent, particularly if they have performed to, or above…
£400 million saved by sleep-in decision
In Case transcript of Tomlinson-Blake v Royal Mencap Society; Shannon v Rampersad and another (t/a Clifton House Residential Home)the Supreme Court decided that sleep-in care workers are entitled to be paid the national minimum wage only when they are awake to work, not when they are sleeping. Mencap employed Mrs Tomlinson-Blake. She provided care and…
Is your equality and diversity training up to date?
In a recent Tribunal discrimination case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal the employer’s defence that it had provided equality and diversity training was criticised. The perpetrator and three others who were aware of the discrimination had participated in training, but it had been provided two years previously and was declared ‘stale’ and ‘ineffective’. The tribunal…
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The Supreme Court rules on sleep-in shifts
The Supreme Court has handed down its decision today (19th March 2021) in Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and another case. In its judgment the court recognised the importance of carers and wardens who help to look after those who through age or infirmity cannot look after themselves. Carers are among those who work sleep-in…
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