A brief reminder of forthcoming increases to the National Minimum Wage and other employment rates   From 1 April 2019, the National Minimum Wage increases as follows: Rates 2019 2018 National Living Wage (age 25+) £8.21 £7.83 Adult rate (age 21-24) £7.70 £7.38 Development rate (age 18-20) £6.15 £5.90 Young...

In a previous news release, we drew attention to the fact that the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) had observed that the construction industry was a fertile area for anti-competitive behaviour. The CMA has now fined five office fit-out firms £7 million for breaking competition laws.   The five –...

The Government has launched a consultation about restricting the use of confidentiality clauses in employment. This comes on the tail of the #metoo movement and is already partially covered in English Law.   Any confidentiality clause is void if it tries to prevent whistleblowing. That is to say, a public...

A claim has been brought in the European Court of Justice concerning recording hours worked by workers.   What happened A trade union brought a claim to the Spanish National High Court for a judgment that Deutsche Bank was under an obligation to record the actual daily working time of...

Under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, employers have 2 months in which to provide their employees with a written statement of the terms of their employment (often referred to as a section one statement, strangely). However, a recent case in the EAT has confirmed that an employee...

Some employers may be surprised to know that all Employment Tribunal decisions made from February 2017 onwards are freely available online. Decisions made before this date are publicly available but you have to go to Bury St Edmunds County Court to get them.   Whilst we are not aware of...

The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has launched a new cartel awareness campaign aiming to educate businesses about illegal practices and urging people to come forward if they suspect illegal behaviour, such as ‘price fixing’ or ‘bid rigging’.   Research released by the CMA to coincide with the campaign shows...

The Court of Appeal has ruled that a major UK employer is responsible for a breach in Data protection Rules, even though it accepted that the Company had done all it could to prevent the breach, and the breach was the result of a malicious employees’ deliberate aim of damaging...

Sherbornes Complaints Procedure

The question can sometimes arise as to whether an employee is disabled. This occurs often when the employee has a condition which is debilitating, but the employer argues that it is not “long-term” (this being a necessary feature of a condition if it is to be classed as a disability)....