There have been a lot of cases over the past year or so looking at what amounts to working time. This is important as where time is “working time” the national minimum wage is payable. In May last year, we reported an EAT case where it was decided that sleep-in...

We have tried to avoid the usual hyperbole about the world cup and managing absence. However, now that the country appears to be sitting up and taking notice at our boys' efforts, it is entirely possible that some staff might get a little carried away whether we win or lose....

The Appeal Tribunal has ruled that voluntary overtime should be taken into account when calculating holiday pay. This follows a steady creep in this direction from previous cases looking at compulsory overtime.    The case in question (Flowers v East Of England Ambulance Trust) concerns a public body, and so...

The now famous case of the Pimlico Plumbers, which we have reported on twice already when in the lower courts, has now been heard in the Supreme Court and there are no surprises in the judgement. This was a case of a plumbing company who used what it thought were self-employed...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled against an employer in the continuing battle over Employment Rights in the gig economy, taking DBS checks and the obligation to accept jobs when logged on, as clear indicators.  A recent ruling in the EAT upheld the Employment Tribunal’s decision that an Addison Lee...

The Information Commissioner’s Office has warned organisations not to expect or to rely on boilerplate policies to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. Speaking at a conference organised by the Law Society, Richard Nevinson, Policy and Engagement Manager for the ICO, stressed that: “Following a template is not necessarily...

Many companies are already well underway on the road to compliance with GDPR. Those that are not underway, should be starting to look at their options shortly. We have noticed that some companies are not putting in place a paper trial to show that they have complied with the new...

For those that don’t know, before employing a person you must check that they have the legal right to work in the UK. You do this by checking original copies of appropriate documents, taking copies of those documents and recording the date of the check. If the individual has a...

A case from the European Court has examined whether stand by time is working time. Stand by time in this context was where the employee could be at home, as long as he was within a distance that allowed him to respond at work within a set time. The actual...

The Appeal Tribunal has issued a ruling which looks the extent to which a dismissal for redundancy will be unfair where the employer fails to consider “Bumping”. Bumping in a redundancy situation is the practice of redeploying a redundant employee to a role occupied by a second person, and making...