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HR / Employment Law News

Contract of employment

The importance of having a contract of employment from day one

The general rule of thumb is that an employment contract or statement of written particulars need only be issued within the first two months of employment. For this reason, many employers will hold off dealing with the additional administrative work until such time that they are confident that the employee will continue beyond the two months. However, a recent case has emphasised the importance of complying with the legal requirement set out in the section 1(2) of the Employments Right

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22nd December 2018
Tribunal fees

Government ponders the reintroduction of tribunal fees

The Law Society Gazette is reporting that the Government is considering reintroducing tribunal fees. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is convinced that a fee system can be found which does not deny claimants access to justice, as indicated by a written answer in Hansard earlier this year which stated that it was reviewing how (as opposed to whether) it would reintroduce tribunal fees. Fees for bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal were introduced in 2013,

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9th November 2018
employment law

Reforming Employment Law Hearing Structures – Is there bad news on the horizon for employers?

On 26th September 2018 the Law Commission issued a consultation paper on Employment Law Hearing Structures. The consultation is due to conclude on 11th January 2019 after which recommendations will be presented to the Government.  So what might be in store for Employment Law hearings and how might this impact on employers? One of the proposals set out in the paper is an extension of the limitation periods in Employment Tribunal, in most cases extending this to 6 months. For

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28th September 2018
Working from home

Is this the end of the 9-5?

If you look around any town centre, shopping mall, or in fact, any location where young people can be found en masse, there will almost certainly be a common image. That is of young people, the future workforce, with their heads down, scrolling or tapping away on their phone, often whilst with their friends. The simple fact of the matter is that this is modern communication. WhatsApp, Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram (don’t for one second try to add Facebook to

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22nd August 2018
sexual harassment recommendations

Government report makes sexual harassment recommendations

According to a BBC survey in November 2017, a startling 40% of British women, and 18% of British men stated that they had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace. Sexual harassment in the workplace is, and has been, at the forefront of our attention for a number of months following the rise of the #MeToo movement and the ‘Time’s Up’ campaign. More recently, this has been further added to by the report produced by the ‘Women and Equalities Commission’,

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16th August 2018

Court of Appeal ruling: Sleeping on the job

The Court of Appeal has ruled that carers that sleep overnight at a client’s home, are not entitled to the minimum wage whilst sleeping. In consideration of Royal Mencap Society v Claire Tomlinson Blake and John Shannon v Jaikisham and Prithee Rampersad (trading as Clifton House Residential Home), the Court of Appeal found that any employee that stays the night at a disabled, elderly or vulnerable person’s home, are only entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) while they are

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19th July 2018
social media

Religion / Belief Discrimination Myth Busters – Comments on social media

Acas recently published new guidance on religion and belief to help employers prevent discrimination on these grounds in the workplace. To assist employers further, we’ve produced another series of “myth busters” to help separate fact from fiction in this area, all of which have been published on our website over the last few weeks. Of course, if you’re an employer and would like to discuss any of the issues touched on in these posts, please contact one of our HR consultants in

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29th June 2018

Religion / Belief Discrimination Myth Busters – Holiday requests relating to religion or belief

Acas recently published new guidance on religion and belief to help employers prevent discrimination on these grounds in the workplace. To assist employers further, we’ve produced another series of “myth busters” to help separate fact from fiction in this area, all of which will be published on our website over the coming weeks. Of course, if you’re an employer and would like to discuss any of the issues touched on in these posts, please contact one of our HR consultants in confidence

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28th June 2018
HR religion

Religion / Belief Discrimination Myth Busters – Discrimination against members of the same religion

Acas recently published new guidance on religion and belief to help employers prevent discrimination on these grounds in the workplace. To assist employers further, we’ve produced another series of “myth busters” to help separate fact from fiction in this area, all of which will be published on our website over the coming weeks. Of course, if you’re an employer and would like to discuss any of the issues touched on in these posts, please contact one of our HR consultants in confidence

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21st June 2018
Religion / Belief - Refusing to do the job

Religion / Belief Discrimination Myth Busters – Refusing to do the job

Acas recently published new guidance on religion and belief to help employers prevent discrimination on these grounds in the workplace. To assist employers further, we’ve produced another series of “myth busters” to help separate fact from fiction in this area, all of which will be published on our website over the coming weeks. Of course, if you’re an employer and would like to discuss any of the issues touched on in these posts, please contact one of our HR consultants

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14th June 2018
Woman wearing hijab

Religion / Belief Discrimination Myth Busters – Dress Codes

Acas recently published new guidance on religion and belief to help employers prevent discrimination on these grounds in the workplace. To assist employers further, we’ve produced another series of “myth busters” to help separate fact from fiction in this area, all of which will be published on our website over the coming weeks. Of course, if you’re an employer and would like to discuss any of the issues touched on in these posts, please contact one of our HR consultants

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8th June 2018

Religion / Belief Discrimination Myth Busters – Philosophical Belief

Acas recently published new guidance on religion and belief to help employers prevent discrimination on these grounds in the workplace. To assist employers further, we’ve produced another series of “myth busters” to help separate fact from fiction in this area, all of which will be published on our website over the coming weeks. Of course, if you’re an employer and would like to discuss any of the issues touched on in these posts, please contact one of our HR consultants

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31st May 2018
gdpr

Need GDPR compliant HR documentation?

Whilst you may have been inundated with emails explaining the new rules around GDPR and your inclusion on every mailing list you ever signed up for, in preparation for the implementation of the GDPR on Friday, we have been working with our clients to meet the requirements of the new legislation. In particular, we have supported clients in preparing the following documents: 1.       Data Protection Policy 2.       Subject Access Request Policy 3.       Record Retention Policy 4.       Criminal Record Information Policy

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23rd May 2018
irregular hours holiday pay

Calculation of holiday pay for workers with irregular hours

  Calculating holiday pay for workers who do irregular hours can be daunting enough, but recent reporting by some publications of the recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision in the case of Brazel v The Harpur Trust (UKEAT/0102/17) has left many scratching their heads as to the practical implications. In an attempt to make things a little clearer, here is a potted summary of the case and its practical implications. The claimant in this case was a visiting music teacher on

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5th April 2018
early conciliation

Latest Acas stats show significant increase in Early Conciliation cases

  Acas have now released their Conciliation Update for the period of April to December 2017 and the results are somewhat unsurprising given the statistics released by the Ministry of Justice’s for the period from October to December 2017. The MOJ report showed a huge increase of 90% in Employment Tribunal claims (not including those where the claim is made by two or more Claimants) compared to the same quarter in 2016. This upsurge in claims has been widely, and

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4th April 2018

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