Reducing your risk, helping to develop your team and taking the burden off your shoulders… Straight talking and transparent on costs we offer smart, commercially based advice.
Clarion's employment team have a real understanding of the requirements, and deliver their advice accordingly," say clients. "They are efficient, responsive and attentive to the needs of the client.
Chambers UK 2019
The employment team at Clarion combines 'in-depth legal knowledge and commercial acumen' with 'down-to-earth, professional, solid advice'.
Legal 500 2018
I have always found Clarion to be extremely flexible and quick in terms of responding to issues. They are always forthcoming with practical and reasonable solutions, and offer us helpful and well-considered advice.
Chambers UK 2018
The team is very responsive and professional and they take pride in understanding our business and therefore give appropriate advice. Their strength is service and I believe their advice is excellent.
Chambers UK 2017
An extremely impressive team of employment experts, friendly and knowledgeable with a good range of work.
Chambers UK 2016
I have worked alongside Clarion for over 5 years and have greatly valued their commercial, no nonsense and pragmatic advice. We work in partnership and the advice their team offer reflects their understanding of our business, company culture and attitude to risk. Service levels are of the highest order - we are a 24/7 operation and are never left wanting!
Clipper Logistics Group Limited
If you’d like to stay on top of developments in employment law, please send us an email to receive our complementary monthly bulletins. They are quick to review and easy to digest.
Specialist employment lawyers we provide a ‘hand-in-glove’ extension to your existing HR team, an expert stand-alone resource and reliable sounding board through our ‘Your Call’ Advice Line as and when you need us.
Taking the time to get to know you, your business, your goals and wider workforce, we work with corporations, large organisations, SMEs and high net worth individuals building trusted and long-term relationships. With sound and timely advice we’re here to ensure early intervention to head off trouble, reduce risk, protecting your interests and advise on insurance issues. Whilst we react intelligently and pragmatically to each and every employment law issue you have, this allows you to do what you do best, the job of running your business.
Please click here to read our Employment Tribunal Pricing Schedule.
Reducing your risk, helping to develop your team and taking the burden off your shoulders… Straight talking and transparent on costs we offer smart, commercially based advice.
The team provides a range of strategic advice in relation to restructuring and redundancy programmes. One client says: 'I have been totally impressed with their commerciality and they provide us with constructive solutions'.
Chambers UK 2013
Being part of a full service practice we also work closely with our renowned corporate team, dealing with employee-related issues that arise in acquisitions and mergers, together with breaches of restrictive covenants through dispute resolution, as well as our work in specialist insurance cover, training and provision of our dedicated employment law advice line.
Examples of our experience include:
Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, employees have the right to 28 days’ annual leave per annum. This can include the eight bank holidays in the UK, if the employer chooses. There is no right in the Working Time Regulations 1998 to carry forwar…
In the weeks following the EU referendum results on 24 June 2016, there was a spike in racially motivated violence and hate crime across the UK, both in public and on social media, with over 3,000 allegations recorded.
The government is planning a series of measures to toughen workers’ rights as part of its ‘vision for the future of the UK labour market’. In what it claims are the biggest package of workplace reforms in twenty years, the government has…
There might be occasions when it is necessary to make a change to an employee’s contract of employment. However, there is a need to act reasonably when doing this and to have regard to the response of the employee. In Decker v Extra Personnel Logis…
An employee can resign if you breach the contract of employment and make a constructive dismissal claim. A breach does not have to be one event.
In addition to our monthly Bulletins, we thought a summary of a recent case regarding employment tribunal time limits may help keep you up to date with employment law developments. Employment Tribunal Time Limits The recent case of DHL Supply Chai…
As well as our monthly Bulletins, we thought a short summary of a recent case regarding holiday entitlement for agency workers could help keep you informed of employment law developments. Holiday Entitlement For Agency Workers The recent case of Kocur v…
In addition to our monthly Bulletins, we thought you may find it useful to have a summary of a recent case on disability discrimination to help keep you up to date with employment law developments. Disability Discrimination We have recently published a …
If an employee is struggling and is given no support, it could be possible for that employee to argue that there has been a breach of contract and make a breach of contract (or constructive dismissal) claim. In Fletcher v Countrywide Estate Agents [2018],…
‘IR35’ has become a term that many organisations are very nervous about, but what exactly does it mean and does it affect you? IR35 is a tax law that stops an individual from avoiding employment tax by treating themselves as self-employed, wh…
Mental Health Awareness week provides a great opportunity to highlight some of the steps we have taken at Clarion to look after the mental health of ourselves and our colleagues. Clare King provides insight into being a mental health first aider. I am on…
This week (14-20 May 2018) is Mental Health Awareness Week and at Clarion we’re focusing on helping employers create a mentally healthy workplace where everyone feels valued and supported. We have recently written some guidance on how you can achie…
An area of difficulty for employers is where an employee’s disability is not self-evident and may only impact in particular situations or in relation to certain responsibilities. Examples of such ‘hidden’ disabilities are mental health c…
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will come into force on 25 May 2018. The GDPR will substantially change the law relating to the holding and processing of personal data. So what do you need to do to be ready for the forthcoming changes…
In a redundancy situation, there is no statutory obligation on you to seek volunteers. However, you might have a contractual obligation if you have a redundancy procedure which says that you will always seek volunteers before moving to compulsory redundan…
If an employee requests a change of working pattern this will be a permanent contractual change unless you agree otherwise (for example, agreeing the change for a limited period of time). Changing the working pattern without the employee’s agreement…
If you have a valid reason for doing so, you can carry out alcohol and drug testing at work. However, employees must know that this could happen, the drug testing at work must be carried out by someone specifically qualified to do it and the person interp…
It is clear law that employers are liable for the actions of their employees (assuming such actions are carried out in the course of employment). In addition to this, a recent case has concluded that the employer can also be responsible for the actions of…
A restrictive covenant can be put in a contract of employment to protect your organisation should an employee leave. However, how enforceable restrictive covenants are and whether they are upheld will depend on whether, the covenant protect somethin…
Read our Employment Law Bulletin The case of King v The Sash Window Workshop Ltd [2017] has addressed another important topic with regard to holiday pay entitlement. The individual concerned, who was treated as self-employed, was given the opportunity of…
Self employed rights and the whole question of the gig economy has been raised once more in a recent case. Whilst contracting people who are self employed may suit some companies in terms of providing flexibility, are the savings on items such as sick pay…
Victoria Clark, associate in Clarion’s employment practice, gives advice how businesses can ensure that social media is not misused by employees.
Tackling employee misconduct can be challenging for employers, particularly when the employee is represented during the disciplinary process.
Businesses are always looking for new ways of cutting cost and improving efficiency and outsourcing certain functions can be an attractive prospect.
Bidding for contracts is a difficult business. A bidder treads a fine line between pricing competitively and ensuring the project will generate sufficient profit for the business. When TUPE is likely to apply to a contract up for tender, things become mor…
As business advisers, we understand that businesses are increasingly challenged by rapidly changing national dynamics and a globalising economy.
In our 'TUPE – How to Comply, and TUPE – Service Provision Change, has there been any?' articles in June, we explained the circumstances in which TUPE will apply. Recent press concerning the insolvency of City Link, Austin Reed a…
From 6 April 2017 all UK employers will be required to pay an apprenticeship levy of 0.5% of their gross annual pay bill to HM Revenue & Customs.
In our TUPE- How to Comply article last month, we explained that TUPE obligations apply on two types of transfer- a transfer of business and a service provision change. A service provision change occurs when there is reassignment or transfer ‘in-ho…
Media agencies, like many businesses, place a huge degree of trust in their key people. It is individuals, rather than companies, who have the relationships with key customers, make the strategic decisions and know detailed information about the business,
Failure to comply with TUPE obligations can leave both parties to the transfer vulnerable to tribunal claims.
Whether your business is expanding, looking to grow, seeking investment or tidying up for sale consider our practical tips on retention strategies for incentivising and recruiting quality employees as the labour and economic markets continue to improve.
Our employment team offers advice to businesses about ways of avoiding an HR issue escalating into a costly and time consuming employment tribunal claim.
Whether you’re a big fish or a bright new start up, you can expect the same high level of service at Clarion. We are real ‘people people’ and we like to get to know our clients personally from day one.
As the economy continues to pick up, along with a resurgence of the UK manufacturing sector, Yorkshire businesses are facing the challenge of attracting and retaining the talented people they need in order to expand, staff retention is becoming a key issu
This time last year, Jeremy Paxman caused a social media storm when he suddenly appeared on Newsnight sporting a full facial beard, and stories of people having been fired or overlooked for promotion owing to visible tattoos or piercings are not uncommon.
New rules will soon come into force which will allow parents to share up to 50 weeks of parental leave (concurrently, consecutively, and/or returning to work for periods in between).
Employers should be aware of a number of recent judgments relating to holiday pay which may leave them open to collective claims from their workforce.
Flexible working remains on the rise with an increasing proportion of workers working mainly, or entirely, from home, or remotely out in the field. Even the government is actively exploring the pros and cons. But what exactly are they?
The Spartacus Network has recently published its ‘Beyond the Barriers’ report which argues that common workplace arrangements act as a barrier for demoralised disabled employees.
As featured in the Yorkshire Post, our employment team offers advice on ways of improving staff performance.
The number of Employment Tribunal claims has dropped by 79% since 2012.
Software supplier preserves sensitive business information with a poorly drafted restrictive covenant
On 6 April 2014 ACAS early conciliation is being introduced to the Employment Tribunal system. For the first month, it will be voluntary but become compulsory after 6 May 2014.
A Q & A as featured in Personnel Today
Stress, depression and anxiety could amount to disabilities requiring reasonable adjustments
The Government has published its response to the consultation on the proposed changes to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”).
It is entirely natural to feel nervous about appearing as a witness but is it really as bad as you fear? Not if you come prepared.
Apprenticeships have been around since the Middle Ages, originally to enable young workers to learn a trade.
A recent survey by the PMI Health Group has revealed that 77% of employers have never talked to their workforce about incentives to see how influential they are or to indentify what benefits packages they would actually value the most.
As part of the government’s initiative to reduce Employment Tribunal claims, the bulk of the new Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 came into force on 29 July 2013. It aims to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses and boost economic growth.
Calculating the correct amount of holiday pay owed to an employee under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (‘WTR’) has historically proven to be a tricky task for employers.
There’s nothing like time-pressure to get people motivated.
The case of USDAW –v- WW Realisation 1 Ltd (in liquidation) and another was very recently heard by the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT). It arose from the high-profile collapse of Woolworths and the closure of its stores.
Employers facing urgent and large-scale redundancy programmes often complain that their obligation to collectively consult under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) is impractical.
A discretionary bonus normally makes up a large part of my pay, but this year my award is really low. What can I do about it?
The introduction of Employment Tribunal fees has been on the horizon for several months. On 24 April 2013, the wheels were set in motion when new legislation to implement the fees system was laid before Parliament for approval. HM Courts & Tribunals Servi
The recent Luis Suarez “biting incident” has sparked debate about the appropriateness of disciplinary sanctions. So what should employers take into account when disciplining an employee?
After going back and forth several times between the House of Commons and the House of Lords in a game of parliamentary ping-pong, the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 received Royal Assent yesterday.
Our latest Q & A as featured in the FT
Tops tips on managing workforce health more actively in the light of a recent EAT decision as featured in People Management.
New obligations for employers to automatically enrol eligible workers into pensions are affecting more and more businesses. All employers will need to be fully compliant with the new regime as soon as they reach their specific staging date.
Legal Q & A comment as featured in Personnel Today.
As trading conditions remain tough, many employers choose to offer enhanced payments to redundant employees – providing a more comfortable send off and minimising the risk of later receiving Employment Tribunal claims.
Question posted to the Financial Times and answered by Clarion...
Question posted to the Financial Times and answered by Clarion...
Employers across Yorkshire continue to wrestle a sluggish economy which, despite early signs of recovery, continues to force them into the realm of redundancy.
The legal and business case in favour of the Chancellor’s rights for shares deal.
Question posted to the Financial Times and answered by Clarion...
Victoria Clark, associate in employment law at Clarion, explains why it is sometimes difficult to follow a fair procedure when assessing candidates for redundancy.
A reader in the Financial Times asked: "I have worked for a large firm of architects since 2002 and enjoy my job. However, I really want a fresh challenge and am thinking of setting up by myself.
Perhaps the trickiest area of employment law and one which HR managers and business owners continue to agonise over is that of vicarious liability.
It took an act of Parliament to allow shops to extend their opening hours during the London 2012 Olympics. Now, the debate over whether to loosen Sunday trading restrictions in England and Wales has been reignited.
The Ministry of Justice has published its annual employment tribunal stats (compiled from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012) - showing a marked drop in total number of claims. But could the fact that many employers choose to settle early rather than fight a c
When a claimant saw an email sent from her employer via ACAS during settlement conciliation, which commented on her capabilities, she ultimately won a case of victimisation. And while the case of Vernon v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham provides
According to current figures from the Office of National Statistics, there were 20 million people in the UK aged over 50 in 2003. This is expected to increase to 27.2 million by 2031. In 2008, 19.1% of the population in Yorkshire was over retirem…
It makes sound HR sense to formulate a plan that set out your organisation’s approach to the games.
Sarah Tahamtani, partner in the employment team at Clarion, offers advice about how can small and medium sized businesses can avoid problems from the use of social networking.
When can you show that a gender pay differential is due to historical grading based on skills and experience and not discrimination?
On 1 October, the majority of the Equality Act 2010 came into force. This replaced and consolidated the law on discrimination, making discrimination law more easily accessible to employees.
It is estimated that on any given working day there are approximately 1.2 million agency workers on assignment in the UK.
Provision comes into force on 6 April 2011, which allows employers to take positive action in relation to protected or under-represented groups when recruiting and/or promoting. The aim is to promote diversity in the workplace. “Protected group&r…
The Employment Appeals Tribunal has handed down its judgement in the case of Mr T Brown v G4 Security (Cheltenham). The comments made by the EAT highlight the fact sensitive nature of assessing the amount of a penalty for non-compliance with the Informati…
News round-up We still have a few places left on our next HR Breakfast Club, which is taking place on Thursday 25th April. At the event, we will focus on why people are the driving force of success in any organisation. We will hear from Rachel Hann…
News round up We still have some places left for our next Employment seminar which will take place on Thursday 7th March at our offices. At the seminar, Sarah Tahamtani (Partner) and Joanna Dodd (Senior Associate) will help the delegates …
Happy New Year! Although it probably seems like a long time ago, we hope that you had a good Christmas break, and that 2019 is a prosperous and successful year for you and your organisation. We have few seminars coming up … We still have s…
News round up Thank you for everyone who attended our recent seminar on 8 November, which we did in conjunction with Legal and General. Managing disability and long-term absence was again on the agenda and seem to remain a topic of interest for man…
News round up We have several exciting events in the pipeline. Please click here to view our seminar programme and keep an eye on your inbox for invitations to these events in due course. We still have some places left for our next emplo…
News round up We have several exciting events in the pipeline. Please click here to view our seminar programme and keep an eye on your inbox for invitations to these events in due course. In addition, we are always talking about key legal de…
News round up Places are filling up fast for our popular HR Breakfast club event on Thursday 13 September 2018. In this interactive workshop, we will guide you through case study materials concerning a troublesome, under-performing employee who, when cha…
News round up It has been a busy July so far for the Clarion Employment team - both inside and outside the office. It has been a great summer of sport and three members of the team (Joanna, Hannah and Charlotte) decided to get involved in this and comple…
News round up We have several exciting events in the pipeline. Please click here to view our seminar programme and keep an eye on your inbox for invitations to these events in due course. On 28 June we are holding our annual Mock Employment Tribunal. Th…
News round up We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new team member to our growing Employment team. Partner, Chris Booth has joined the team this month. We have several exciting events in the pipeline and seminars already scheduled f…
Clarion is continuing to grow its eight-strong employment team with the appointment of a partner, Chris Booth, formerly head of office at Pinsent Masons, Leeds. Having been a lawyer for 30 years, Chris brings a wealth of experience. He joined Pinse…
Clarion is continuing to expand its employment team with the appointment of Charlotte O’Connor as an associate. Charlotte undertook a MLaw (Solicitors LPC Exempting) Degree at Northumbria University before working at Rollits LLP and then as a paral…
News round up We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new team member to our growing Employment team. Associate, Charlotte O'Connor, has joined the team this month and is very much looking forward to meeting the businesses we support. …
News round up We have a number of exciting events in the pipeline and seminars already scheduled for later in the year. Please click here to view our seminar programme and keep an eye on your inbox for invitations to these events in due course. Our next…
News round up Welcome to our first employment law bulletin of 2018. We have a number of exciting events in the pipeline and seminars already scheduled for later in the year. Please click here to view our seminar programme and keep an eye on yo…
News round up Welcome to our November bulletin. Thank you to those of you who attended our events in October. The Employment team will be taking a well-deserved break from events as we approach the festive season, but we will be back in the New Year with…
News round up Summer is now officially over, the evenings are getting darker and suddenly Christmas cards are in all of the shops. We hope you all had enjoyable summers and, after a short break from our newsletter in August, we are now back with lots of …
News round up Welcome to our July newsletter. We were delighted to host our annual Mock Employment Tribunal recently and to see so many familiar faced from the Clarion community enjoy the theatre of the Hearing unfold. We found that a lot of our…
News round up Welcome to our June newsletter. There’s also still time to enter a team into the Clarion Leeds 10K Corporate Challenge which takes place on 9 July. It’s a great opportunity to get together with your colleagues and get fit for t…
News round up Thanks to those who attended our Social Media seminar on 11 May 2017. Don’t worry if you missed out, we have a number of events coming up in the next few weeks. Our Mock Employment Tribunal takes place on 27 June 2017 and there are a…
Welcome to our April 2017 newsletter. It’s hard to believe that its April already! Spring is finally here and it’s set to be a busy season of events for us. On 5 May 2017 we host our first Harrogate HR Forum at Rudding Park. Aimed at HR profe…
2017 has got off to a busy start for the Clarion Employment team with our seminar programme. Thank you for those of you who attended our Wetherby HR Forum and our Can’t Do, Won’t Do seminar in January.
News round up Happy New Year (if we are still allowed to wish you that!). We hope that the 2017 is a prosperous and successful year for you. We are kick-starting the New Year with our ‘Can’t do? Won’t do? Time to go?’ seminar on …
November's newsletter looks at the key developments in employment law over the past month, including the hotly anticipated decision in the ‘Uber’ case. We also bring you the latest development in the Asda equal pay case, along wit…
October’s newsletter looks at the key developments in employment law over the past month.
News round up Although August is always a quieter holiday month there are three important developments to bring to your attention in the form of the naming and shaming companies not complying with National Minimum Wage, a consultation on termination paym…
This month, our bulletin looks at the referendum result and the potential implications of Brexit on employment law.
In this month’s bulletin, we take a look at the recent headlines surrounding workplace dress codes and the Leeds United case regarding constructive dismissal
This month’s bulletin looks at the new rates of National Minimum Wage along with key case law developments relating to the Bribery Act 2010 and whistleblowing.
This month we remind you of the changes following the annual review of statutory rights and consider the implication of two important decision on the extent employer are responsible for the actions of individuals in the business and the provision of child care vouchers when employees are on maternity leave.
This month we cover the significant new developments in holiday pay case law and gender pay reporting legislation.
The average pay gap between male and female employees reportedly stands at about 20%. It is perhaps unsurprising that the government has today re-stated that closing this gap remains a priority, and it has published draft regulations requiring certain emp…
Welcome to our February update. This month we look at a range of cases concerning topics such as whether employers can snoop into employees’ private emails, rules about speaking English at work, and how to avoid discrimination in the giving of refe…
Happy New Year! We hope that it is a prosperous and healthy new year for you all. Our first breakfast seminar of the year will take place on Thursday 3 March 2016 and will explore the following - “Changing terms of employment &…
Welcome to our November update. This month we consider the right to be paid whilst sleeping at a place of work, the scope of an employer’s duties when faced with a subject access request and a recent decision on a TUPE transfer involving staff who h…
Welcome to our October update. This month we look at a number of cases dealing with working time, fair disciplinary procedures, indirect discrimination and TUPE. We’ve also included some information about how our private client team can …
We hope you have all had an enjoyable summer. As autumn now approaches, no doubt thoughts will be turning towards the winter and Christmas. Whilst we are not suggesting that you start to plan your Christmas shopping just yet, this is a good time to t…
The holiday season is now upon us, so it is a good time to highlight some key points relating to annual leave (see below). In this issue we also cover some important recent decisions on religious discrimination, unfair dismissal, TUPE and workin…
So, now the General Election is over and everything has settled back down again, it is time to review what changes we might see in employment law in the near future. As we reported in the last newsletter, the Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act&n…
All the political parties have included pledges in their manifestos which relate to employment law. Common themes are zero hours contracts, national minimum wage, childcare funding, equality, trade unions, employment tribunal reform, apprenticeships and migrant workers.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (the “ECJ”) has today handed down an important decision concerning employers’ collective redundancy obligations.
We hope you are well and enjoyed the holidays. There are only a few places left on our forthcoming seminar on Tuesday 21 April which covers milestone cases which have shaped employment law. It will provide an overview of the some of the key areas of…
Leicester Employment Tribunal has delivered its judgment concerning the inclusion of commission in holiday pay (in the case of Lock and ors v British Gas Trading Ltd).
For those that attended our interactive Mock employment Tribunal session, you’ll know too well the importance of having a clear social media policy. The issue has been highlighted further by social media being in the news againThe use of social med…
Thank you to everyone who has registered to attend our Mock Employment Tribunal next week, which is now at full capacity. It’s set to be a great ‘Hearing’. There is a waiting list for future Mock Tribunals so if you missed out this time,…
We start this newsletter by wishing you a very happy New Year. We hope that 2015 is productive and prosperous for you.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has delivered its judgment on the linked cases of Bear Scotland v Fulton and Baxter; Hertel (UK) Ltd v Wood & Others; and Amec Group v Law and others, which deal with the calculation of holiday pay.
It’s that time of year when there’s a number of changes being introduced today including national minimum wage increase, the introduction of orders for equal pay audits and increased rights to attend ante-natal appointment.
Summer is over. We're not talking about the sun and the general good cheer (although they're nice!). It's the feeling that those six weeks or more of school holidays are a corporate hiatus.
The controversy caused by zero-hours contracts rumbles on. Despite some calls to ban them, the government has issued its latest indication of support for these arrangements which it says have a place in the labour market.
It's been four years in the making. Now the time has come to pledge allegiance to a remote country (or a front-runner, if you're lucky) because you picked its name out of a hat. It's the Football World Cup 2014 and it's shaking up workplaces everywhere.
The big news this month is that Acas early conciliation is now compulsory.
There's a big change this month. Employees must now notify Acas (by telephone, or by filling in a form which can be posted or submitted online) before they are allowed to bring an employment tribunal claim.
Last month, Vince Cable 'named and shamed' employers who pay less than minimum wage. Except he didn't.
The HR Directors Business Summit is the largest and most senior meeting place for the HR and business community, specifically directed at strategic HR and business performance. Our employment team are delighted to be sponsoring this years event and in…
We recognise that a time comes in January when you can’t wish people a happy New Year any longer but as its not quite mid month, happy New Year to you all and hello to twelve more months of legal developments for employers and HR professionals!
Fewer tribunal claims are being brought since fees were introduced in July.
The number of employment claims is up 10% on this time last year, according to tribunal statistics just published by the government.
Employee-shareholder contracts This month brings with it a huge shift in the balance of power in the workplace. Or, if you believe most legal commentators, it won't. From 1 September, employee-shareholder contracts became a new way of governing …
At the end of last month, employees started paying to bring claims in tribunals.
Half way through the year and the drip-feeding of employment law changes continues. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act is coming alive, with next month bringing with it the introduction of Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal fees.
Congratulations to Marie, Estelle and Joanna.
The government has passed two major pieces of legislation, the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, each of which have considerable impact on employers.
There's news that employment law may not be quite as burdensome as all that.
As featured in the Yorkshire Post.
So we’re working longer and retiring later. These latest figures from the Office for National Statistics won’t come as any great surprise to employers, many of whom are now in tune with an increasingly diverse workforce.
The planned changes to employment law are gathering pace with some fresh announcements from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
What a year that was. We saw the unfair dismissal qualifying period double, the start of automatic pension scheme enrolment, heftier costs penalties, shorter cases and judges sitting alone. And a lot more besides.
Step outside. It may still be the tail end of Autumn but there’s no ignoring twinkly lights and jaunty jingles. The season of giving and receiving is upon us.
Like them, loathe them or view them with detached ambivalence: some of the Government’s proposed employment law changes are poised to receive the full force of public feedback.
We take a month’s break from newsletter production and what happens? Cases continue to pour through the tribunals, making our job of choosing a handful to report in this issue pretty tricky.
Sarah Tahamtani comments on a Yorkshire Post article - "Racy novel could prove to be a problem in the workplace"
In breaking news, the Ministry of Justice has announced that from summer 2013, (ex-) employees will have to pay fees to bring an employment tribunal claim.
It's caused a bit of a stir. Adrian Beecroft's government-commissioned report on employment law has 'shake-up' as its middle name.
It wouldn’t be a Queen’s Speech without a small element of anticlimax. As usual, predictions about this year’s main features were pretty accurate.
A year in the planning and a trawl of 21,000 statutory instruments later, we’re finally here.
Not long now before we start to see some effects of the government’s shake up of employment tribunals and claims. The most publicised change is the increase in the unfair dismissal qualifying period from one to two years. This will apply from 6 April 2012, but only to people who started working for you on or after that date.
It's important to remember that employment law doesn't operate in a vacuum. There's a challenge for employers in honouring obligations and rewarding staff, while ensuring a perception of fairness and reasonableness - which is always subjective and rarely static - among the wider workforce.
Despite well-intentioned resolutions and the anticipation of fresh starts, a new year is never going to be a completely blank canvas. The tail end of 2011 brought with it some important employment law decisions which will help shape working practices in the months ahead. So let’s start getting to grips with some of them...
Our notes and comments on the new government proposals
Statutory holiday pay entitlement for workers following the decision in Fraser v South West London St George’s Mental Health Trust
Property, employment and corporate teams advise the vendor.
