It is of course well established practice that a disciplinary officer can seek advice from HR on the matter. How much of an influence that advice can have is of course normally only known between the person giving the advice and the recipient of it. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently given guidance in […]
Does travel to and from work count as working time?
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has provided guidance on what constitutes working time for those workers with no habitual workplace. The ECJ looked at whether, for these types of workers, time spent travelling from home to customers’ premises and vice versa was working time under the Working Time Directive. It was concluded that it […]
Update on Employment Tribunal Fees
You will recall that fees were introduced in the employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal on 29th July 2013 and that they can be as much as £1,200. Following this change and within 8 months, there had been a 79% drop in claims compared to the previous year. Unison the Union took steps to challenge […]
Government cracks down on strikes
The Government has introduced the Trade Union Bill 2015-2016 in an attempt to reduce the number of strikes. No doubt fuelled by the tube chaos in London over recent months, it has also introduced three consultations over ballet thresholds in important public services and whether these should be higher, hiring agency workers during a strike […]
The term “apprentice” is often misused
As employment lawyers we often hear the term “apprentice” used by clients employers and employees alike to mean many different things like trainee or a more junior member of staff. A true apprentice means something different to an employment lawyer. Apprentices are a unique type of worker whose dismissal needs to be handled with additional […]
TUPE and assignment by election
In a TUPE scenario, the end user cannot decide who is assigned to an organised grouping of employees for the purpose of the transfer according to the EAT as this is a matter for the employer. In the case of Jakowlew v Saga Care [2015], the Claimant worked for the end user a London Borough […]