News

Can you withhold sick pay during a pandemic? Whether it’s a ‘duvet day’ because the weather is cold and dreary outside or a suspicious tummy bug following a sunny Bank Holiday Monday, if you are an employer then chances are you will have had cause on occasions to question whether a member of staff is…

COVID Testing in the Workplace: An Employer’s Guide We’ve looked at whether employers can insist their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 but what about the issue of testing? Many employers running essential businesses requiring their staff to present for work are undertaking the added measure of testing for their staff as a means of preventing a COVID-19…

The introduction of the Equality Act 2010 not only brought together existing protections against discrimination, it also introduced new ones. One of the new elements was specifically drafted to close a loophole which, in certain circumstances, meant that employers could still dismiss employees because of their disability. The new provision – “discrimination arising from a…

The introduction of the Equality Act in 2010 brought together various strands of existing legislation prohibiting discrimination on different grounds including race, religion etc. It also confirmed the coverage of other grounds such as maternity and pregnancy.  Discrimination on the grounds of someone’s ‘caste’, however, was not explicitly covered and the Government has been considering…

Employment law provides a structural mechanism to help employees deal with many significant life events: sick pay during times of illness, maternity leave and pay when an employee has a baby, for example. Until now, however, the Government has avoided creating a minimum set of rights for employees who experience bereavement. A new Bill will…

Hundreds more employers have been publically ‘named and shamed’ by the Government for failing to pay their workers the national minimum wage. Quarter on quarter, the number of employers continues to grow and we are able to recognise trends in who is getting it wrong most frequently, and why. With hefty fines attached to underpayment,…

The law on employing part-time employees says that employers must not treat a part-time employee less favourably than a full-time employee just because of their part-time status. Where less favourable treatment does occur, employers must be able to ‘objectively justify’ that treatment. A recent case involving British Airways part-time staff has shown how easy it…

Several MPs led by SNP MP Stewart McDonald are proposing that unpaid trial shifts should be banned and made illegal. The Unpaid Trial Work Periods (Prohibition) Bill seeks to make all unpaid trial shifts (used primarily to determine whether or not a prospective employee has the necessary requirements for a position) illegal and suggest that…