Following the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations, agency workers have the right to certain equalities of terms with permanent staff of the hirer. An Employment Tribunal recently awarded £10,000 to an agency worker. In this case the hirer (not the agency) was liable to pay compensation to the agency worker for failing to pay […]
Holiday Policies
It is advisable for employers to have a policy about holiday. It is a requirement of s1 Employment Rights Act 1996 that there is some contractual provision over holiday but it is often useful if not essential for the mechanics of how holiday will work to be set down. This should preferably be in writing […]
Changes from 1st October 2014
On 1st October 2014, a number of changes in employment law came into force. Firstly, in respect of antenatal appointments, fathers or partners now have the right to request time off work to accompany their pregnant partner to attend antenatal appointments. Critically this time is unpaid. Antenatal appointments are not defined but have a wide […]
National Minimum Wage Increases Today
With effect from today (1st October 2014), the national minimum wage increases as follows:- The adult rate increases from £6.31 to £6.50 per hour. That is a 19 pence increase in the rate. For 18 to 20-year-olds the rate increases from £5.03 to £5.13 per hour. That is a 10 pence increase in the rate. […]
Reasonable adjustments
An employee in the case of Dominique v Toll Global Forwarding Ltd who was disabled was placed at a substantial disadvantage by the selection criteria in a redundancy exercise. The employee had previously suffered a stroke which had left him with physical and cognitive impairments. He was selected against three others in a redundancy exercise […]
Health and Work Service
Research has shown that the longer someone is off sick from the work the harder it is for them to return and the statistics as to the cost to the economy are staggering. We reported earlier this year that the Government had taken away the ability for small employers to recover wages for the Government […]