Here’s the situation: You own a small business that employs 15 employees. You do your best to provide good pay and benefits, but, like many companies, your business has been adversely impacted by lingering effects of the pandemic and the overall sluggishness of the economy. You call an all-hands meeting and reluctantly inform your employees … Continue Reading
At our virtual panel discussion a couple of weeks ago, we discussed how the current difficult economic climate means that some businesses are contemplating redundancies and/or restructuring exercises to put themselves in the best possible position to meet these challenges. The good news is that, other than some of the well-publicised downsizing exercises in the … Continue Reading
Back in November 20201 we reported here on some new Acas guidance on changing terms of employment through dismissal and re-engagement, and in November last year on the Government’s intention to issue a new statutory Code on that practice here. A first draft of that Code has now landed and we can exclusively report that … Continue Reading
So, quick, answer me this – when making redundancies outside the collective consultation rules, do you need to consult with the affected employees about the selection criteria relied upon or only as to the proposed impact of those criteria on that person? Traditional wisdom would point to the latter. The selection criteria are a matter … Continue Reading
Oops. Just found an unanswered question left over from our investigations webinar and blog series earlier in the year. Apologies if it was yours. The question revolves around employer and investigator interactions with the Police where the subject matter of your workplace investigation is potentially criminal conduct, and is maybe best answered as a series … Continue Reading
If I were to rank the employment law questions I receive by popularity, questions around long-term absence, absenteeism and generally how to deal with work incapacity would be right up there, a definite podium finish. The tension between the legitimate frustrations of employers and the no-fault nature of the employees’ absence seems eternal. To give … Continue Reading
Your report is done, so what next? Where does it go now and what should you do with all your papers? As a rule, your “client” for the purposes of the investigation is your employer, not any one or more of the individuals who may have participated in it. It needs to be able to … Continue Reading
As a break from workplace investigations and before Covid’s threatened resurgence as an issue for employers, how about this new slice of “gay cake” case law around what should and should not happen when your religious beliefs clash with the requirements of your job? In Mackereth –v- DWP & Another this week, the claimant was … Continue Reading
As per our previous blog post, very few members of the European Union managed to implement the provisions of the Whistleblowing Directive into their national legislation before the 17 December 2021 deadline for compliance. Germany is one of the countries that failed to meet the deadline, but as in a number of other EU countries, … Continue Reading
Every so often there comes along a case which is not madly interesting on its own facts (stay with me here) but which still serves as a useful future touchstone on a particular issue. If your particular interest is constructive dismissal, and in particular, constructive dismissal through the route of the proverbial last straw, then … Continue Reading
Employee volunteers for redundancy, is then made redundant on the terms offered and yet still claims unfair dismissal. A non-starter, surely? That was the view taken by the Employment Tribunal in White –v- HC-One Oval Limited at the back end of 2020. Ms White had volunteered for redundancy so could reasonably dispute neither the existence … Continue Reading
At our webinar earlier in the month (essentially, Life after Covid plus New Proposals) I promised as usual to respond to participant questions via this blog. Here is the first. Please don’t write in and tell me that Covid isn’t over – I know, but that would be a politically inconvenient truth at present so for … Continue Reading
The idea of a universal four-day working week – with the reduction in working time intended to bolster productivity and wellbeing – is not new. In 1956 Richard Nixon argued (perhaps a little prematurely) that “the four-day work week is inevitable”; from 2007-2011 Republican politicians in Utah redefined the week for State employees as from … Continue Reading
So is that it, then? Is Covid behind us for all practical purposes in England, no masks, no working from home, no vaccination passes, all going or gone? Or, in nearly the words of Mark Twain, are reports of the death of Plan B greatly exaggerated? Obviously, no one would suggest any connection between this … Continue Reading
Today we start a new series of posts tackling the vexed area of workplace investigations. We will look at the background law, of which there is very little, and at best practice guidance, of which there is more than can possibly all be useful. We will offer some examples of investigations done badly and consider … Continue Reading
Back in June Acas produced a report on the “fire and re-hire” practices used by some employers to make detrimental changes to employees’ terms and conditions of employment. In essence, the employee is given notice of dismissal from his old contract but offered immediate reinstatement on a new one which incorporates the changes the employer wanted … Continue Reading
Restrictive covenants are a common feature of many employment contracts. They are favoured by employers which want to ensure that departing employees will not solicit business, compete, poach clients or colleagues, and so on. When they are needed they are really needed and so this is an important question. It is always good practice to … Continue Reading
Our webinar on disciplinary proceedings last week began unpromisingly – there is no new law and little new practice to learn, I had to say, not necessarily what you want to hear from your legal training session. Nonetheless, we had several hundred sign-ups, perhaps tribute to the enduring mystique and indeed terror implicit in conducting … Continue Reading
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham – v – Keable is an EAT case with everything in it – Nazis, Holocaust deniers, Momentum activists and Members of Parliament, though not necessarily all at the same time. Oddly, despite this outstandingly diverse cast, the most important part of the decision for employers is actually the EAT’s … Continue Reading
If you look for the statutory source of the ordinary right to bring a workplace grievance, you may be gone some time. It arose initially as a by-product of the implied duty of trust and confidence, and formally bubbled to the surface in WA Gould (Pearmak) Limited – v – McConnell in 1995. There the … Continue Reading
If ever a government consultation was overtaken by events, it is this week’s offering on Making Flexible Working the Default. For many employers this is now pushing at a door which is not just open but blown clean off its hinges by the pandemic and the WFH experience of the last 18 months. The Consultation … Continue Reading
Periodically a case comes along to remind us that underneath all good dismissal practice, Acas guidance and the rest is The Law, and that The Law is sometimes less rigid in its requirements of a fair dismissal than all that guidance might suggest. Moore -v- Phoenix Product Development Limited is today’s such case, an everyday … Continue Reading
In our webinar last week we touched on the existence of a largely unique remedy for whistleblowing dismissals, the concept of interim relief, more recently and lucidly known as a contract continuation order (“CCO”). Time did not permit a full rehearsal of the ins and outs of this potentially devastating employee tool, so here is … Continue Reading
In our webinar last week we looked at the law around whistleblowing with particular reference to how what is now quite an old legal concept may be used for the best or worst of reasons by employees returning to the office. The good faith airings of concerns around gaps in the employer’s Covid precautions must … Continue Reading
