The ET has recently heard a case regarding the refusal by an employee to wear a facemask during the course of his employment. This is unlikely to be the last of such cases in the current climate. The employee had worked for a facilities management company from July 2016 until his dismissal without notice in …
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An interesting article considers the practical issues involved in workplace coronavirus testing and how employers can minimise the risk of claims for breaches of employment or data protection laws. The government has expanded access to workplace Covid testing but there are a number of things employers need to consider when Covid testing in the workplace. …
Continue reading “Lateral flow tests – pitfalls”
The ICO has issued some useful guidance on a wide range of issues in relation to workplace Covid testing that will be of use and interest to practitioners and their clients. The content includes such issues as: appropriate type of test; what to tell staff; frequency of testing; data collection and retention; and testing customers …
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The SC has handed down an important decision regarding whether carers who have to do ‘sleep in’ shifts are entitled to be paid for the entire period. The SC succinctly summarised the crux of the case as: how is the number of hours in their case to be calculated for the purposes of the national …
Continue reading “Overnight shift – no full NMW”
The ET has recently heard an interesting unfair dismissal case which has received coverage in the mainstream media because a notable feature of the case involved the overuse of punctuation in text messages. The claimant was originally employed as a university lecturer although the subsequent employment claim relates to him taking up a post as …
Continue reading “Aggressive texts – take care”
The EAT has heard the seemingly never-ending case involving the high-profile company Pimlico Plumbers and the case that an employee brought against it. The claimant worked for Pimlico for six years as a plumbing and heating engineer, throughout which time Pimlico maintained that he was a self-employed independent contractor with no entitlement to paid annual …
Continue reading “Pimlico plumbers – update”
We reported in our February 2019 edition (p12) on the CA decision about the Uber drivers’ case. The long-awaited SC decision has just been released. Uber contended that their drivers were self-employed independent contractors, meaning that Uber had no work or employee obligations in relation to them. The CA upheld the earlier decisions confirming that …
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Probably one of the most topical issues of our time is considered in an interesting article: Covid-19 – can employers force staff to have the vaccine? The current rules under the latest legislation require people to work from home if they can. For those unable to do so, there are a number of steps that …
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We reported in our February 2021 edition (p14) on the introduction of IR35. As a follow-up, practitioners will be interested in an article which discusses the changes in more detail. The introduction of IR35 has been described as ‘the biggest shake-up of contracting in 20 years’. IR35 is the common name given to the legislation …
Continue reading “IR35 – analysis”
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average (mean or median) earnings of men and women across a workforce. Gender pay gap calculations are based on employer payroll data drawn from a specific date each year. This specific date is called the ‘snapshot date’. From 2017 an employer who has a headcount of …
Continue reading “Reporting – gender pay gap”