The Appeal Tribunal has handed down a judgement in a case where the employer dismissed a probationary employee only to discover afterwards she was pregnant. The employee sued for discrimination and claimed that because the dismissal was due to her absence, and highly emotional state, it “must have been obvious”...

In anticipation of the minor snow fall we are expecting, and in response to several queries already, we anticipate that some employers are wondering whether they have to pay an employee who does not make it to work due to snow fall. Generally, and in most circumstances, the answer is...

In this case, an employer dismissed an employee who had been absent for 128 days.  The reasons for the absence were given as various, but included Work Related Stress and blood pressure. The employee brought claims, relying on being disabled and included a claim for failure to make reasonable adjustments....

The European Court of Justice handed down a judgment on 30th November that might have wide ranging implications for employers and must be understood, if only to assess the risk posed to any business. The case is called King v Sash Windows (2017) and the full judgment can be read here....

Employers who have failed to pay workers the minimum wage face being served with a Notice of Underpayment which can require them to not only pay the arrears to the worker/workers but also pay a fine and be publicly named. Following the decision in Focus Care Agency v Roberts, we...

An employer is under an obligation to satisfy itself of an employee’s right to work, and the fines for failing to do this can be substantial. In a case in the Appeal tribunals, a case has been examined where an employer wrongly required evidence of the right to work of...

When the self-employed are found to be workers And so are entitled to holiday pay An employer whose business model uses “gig staff” (presumed to be self-employed often) has told a committee of MP’s that if a worker takes them to Tribunal and wins, gaining rights to paid holiday and...

It has long been a stock question from clients as to whether they can monitor employees’ emails. In fact, the actual question from clients often comes too late, in that they ask if they can sack an employee for the contents of an email and, we have to say that...

In the case of Agoreyo v London Borough of Lambeth, a local authority suspended a teacher after allegations of using force on children. Suspension is an extremely common response to allegations which might amount to gross misconduct. If an employer has left an employee in situ after serious allegations, the...

The law continues to move apace in the area of what counts as “normal pay” when calculating holiday pay. Last year, the courts decided that if overtime was compulsory, it should be included in the amount of a week’s pay for the purpose of holiday pay calculation. Now, the courts...