Employment and HR

  • Can We Stop Them

    Restrictive covenants (clauses which are normally found in contracts of employment and partnership agreements, which restrict the right of a person to compete with his or her firm) have always been a difficult area of law. The courts are able to strike out...

  • Case Report: Dismissal due to stress contributed to by the employer

    In McAdie v Royal Bank of Scotland [2007] EWCA Civ 806 the Court of Appeal endorsed the EAT's approach in finding that an employer could fairly dismiss an employee for ill-health capability despite the fact that the employee's stress-related illness was...

  • Case Report: Ownership of contact lists - PennWell Publishing (UK) Ltd

    The high court has held that where a journalist employee created and kept all his contacts (including those made before joining the employer) on his employers computer system, that list of information belonged to the...

  • Case Report: Part-timers - dealing with bank and public holidays

    McMenemy v Capita Business Services Limited (Inner House, Court of Session) This case considered the fraught issue of how to deal with bank and public holidays for part timers. Capita employed Mr McMenemy on a part-time basis to work on Wednesdays,...

  • Case Report: Sick pay and disability discrimination

    O'Hanlon v Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs (CA) The Court of Appeal has confirmed the EAT's decision that when Mrs O'Hanlon's entitlement to sick pay had been exhausted under HM Revenue & Customs' sick pay policy, the employer's failure to...

  • Case Report: TUPE and service provision changes

    A recent employment tribunal decision, involving an employee at a PR agency, is the first time to our knowledge that the courts have looked at the provisions of the 2006 TUPE Regulations on service provision changes. This legislation introduced a new...

  • Case Report: Unfair Dismissal - What weight should be given to a previous warning?

    That has been a controversial issue in some recent cases. In Airbus UK -v-Webb the Claimant was employed as an aircraft fitter who had previously been given a final written warning in respect of being found washing his car in company time. It was made clear...

  • Changes to Family Friendly Legislation

    The Work and Families Act introduces measures intended to give more choice to families attempting to balance work and caring responsibilities. It imposes significant new obligations on employers.   The period of statutory maternity pay has been...

  • Compromise Agreements

    As a general rule, ‘out of court settlements’ of employment disputes are not legally binding in that they cannot exclude an employee's right to take the matter concerned to an Employment Tribunal (ET). A formal compromise agreement is one of the...

  • Compromise Agreements - Tax Position Clarified

    A compromise agreement is an agreement made between an employer and an employee who is having their contract of employment terminated. It sets out the terms under which the termination will take place and contains a provision that the employee will receive a...

  • Data Protection Act 1998

    On 24th October 2007, all remaining provisions of the Act come fully into force including the need for Manual filing systems in existence before 24 October 1998 being required to comply fully with the Data Protection Directive...

  • Employment Tribunal Statistics - September 2007

    According to the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal statistics there was a 15% increase in the amount of tribunal claims last year (1 April to 31 March 2007), and a total of 132,577 claims. They also confirmed the average tribunal awards in...

  • False Claims on a CV - What to Do

    According to research by the Risk Advisory Group, more than half of CVs submitted by job applicants contain lies or inaccuracies. These range from gaps in employment history to false claims regarding qualifications and failure to mention fraud committed...

  • Get the Christmas Party Right

    It’s that time of year again. Love them or hate them, the invitations to office Christmas parties will be arriving soon if they haven’t already. For employers, parties pose a particular threat. Here are some tips on making sure your...

  • Have you faced up to Facebook?

    Yasmin Awan outlines some of the dangers to employees and employers of social networking and offers some guidance to employers on dealing with workplace use of sites such as Facebook. What is Facebook? Facebook is the latest in a long line of popular...

  • Health and Safety - VDU Use

    More and more workers are spending a large part of their day looking at a computer screen. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 specifically deal with the health and safety issues associated with working with VDUs. The Health...

  • Health and Safety Breaches - Penalties

    The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 received Royal Assent on 16 October 2008 and came into force on 1 January 2009. It amends Section 33 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and has increased penalties for breaches of health and safety...

  • Recruitment - Preventing Illegal Working Without Discrimination

    Hardly a day goes by without there being some mention of illegal immigration in the news. The number of people discovered working here unlawfully has risen sharply in recent years. There has been much talk of the possible introduction of a national identity...