Earlier this month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued new guidance on sexual harassment and harassment at work. The guidance is very comprehensive, running to some 82 pages, but if you are responsible for drafting your company’s harassment policies or for handling such complaints in the workplace, you should still take a look at … Continue Reading
Unheralded and unannounced, recently revised GDPR guidance from the ICO removed one small source of comfort for employers facing DSARs from employees. It used to say that the 30-day time limit was paused, the clock stopped, if you asked the requester for information to clarify his DSAR and it was not provided. This was not … Continue Reading
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued new guidance on the use of confidentiality agreements (often referred to interchangeably as “non-disclosure agreements” “NDAs”, “gagging clauses” or “confidentiality clauses”) in discrimination cases. The stated aim of the guidance is to “clarify the law on confidentiality agreements in employment and to set out good practice … Continue Reading
The mid-term elections are still on people’s minds, as recounts and run-offs for federal congressional and state gubernatorial candidates are finally wrapping up. Meanwhile, and largely taking a media-coverage backseat to these high-profile races, many new state initiatives became law as a result of the mid-terms, three which involved legalizing marijuana for recreational or medical … Continue Reading
We got a letter from the Home Office last month reminding us, no doubt in common with many others, of our obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Perhaps you did too. Apparently, it is going to publish a name-and-shame list of non-compliant organisations after an audit at the end of March 2019. The letter … Continue Reading
If you have been one of the many wilting at work in the Great British Heatwave of 2018 (or what I believe many other countries just call “summer”), panic not – Acas has issued new guidance to help ease your working day. Or not. Including such gems as “check with your local train company” to … Continue Reading
Perhaps that is not really fair – Acas’ new guidance on overtime certainly does what it can to help employers on the vexed question of whether and how you take overtime into account for holiday pay purposes. However, it is held back from saying anything either new or useful because there haven’t been any developments … Continue Reading
Last December, the National Labor Relations Board issued a groundbreaking decision that gave both union and non-union employers more flexibility to protect their interests through employee handbooks and other written policies. This week, the Board’s top prosecutor – General Counsel Peter Robb – expanded on that decision and further clarified when an employers’ written policies … Continue Reading
In the wake of fluctuations in federal labor law, in particular, as interpreted by the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), regarding who may be considered a joint or co-employer of an employee, in 2017, Arizona enacted its own joint employer law. A.R.S. § 23-1604 makes clear that, at least under Arizona law, a franchisor is not a … Continue Reading
We weren’t very nice on this blog about the original Government Guidance on the Modern Slavery Act, largely because it really wasn’t very good. It lacked detail where structure would have been helpful, regularly confused aspiration with legal requirement and contained altogether too many uses of the word “remediation” for a document singing the praises … Continue Reading
In response to our invitation to contact us with GDPR enquiries, one kind reader has bowled us this particular googlie: Most people in business will have accumulated large contact lists in Outlook email systems or similar, containing many names and other contact details built up over a number of years. Will the GDPR really require … Continue Reading
At our recent webinar on “GDPR Compliance: How UK Employers Can Meet the 25 May 2018 Deadline” we were asked a number of questions via the chat facility. Those questions showed that with less than a year to run and much to do before then, there is still widespread uncertainty as to the detail of … Continue Reading
Acas has been busy with its new guidance recently and so have the Employment team’s vacation students. Here is a cautionary piece on cyber bullying in the workplace by Simon Watts-Morgan. The unstoppable rise of social media and online networking has led perhaps inevitably to the emergence of a new type of workplace bullying – … Continue Reading
Through a long and not very relevant series of arguments, the Court of Appeal in De Souza – v – Vinci Construction (UK) Limited has just decided that in effect they are. This is not a surprising conclusion, since otherwise inflation would erode the value of such awards as either proper compensation for the employee … Continue Reading
Many thanks to summer vacation student Hannah Meahan for this great review of the potential human cost of new technology in the workplace. Technology has permeated our everyday lives and workplaces. HR professionals will be aware of the numerous benefits of technology in the workplace – it often ensures that processes are more efficient, increases … Continue Reading
The Acas National Newsletter for June, out earlier this week, contains some slightly updated advice on the eternal question of how you calculate holiday pay, plus an existential poser on the relationship between sickness and holiday accrual. On the holiday pay front, there remains no steer as to how commission or overtime earnings should be … Continue Reading
Now there’s an opportunity missed. I do not know how it passed me by, but according to the Guardian Online, the last week in March was Bullying At Work Week, marked by a series of earnest articles about exactly what bullying is (still not clear) and exactly what you can do about it legally (still … Continue Reading
After the gestation period of an elephant, the Government Review of the impact of the fees for Employment Tribunal cases finally emerged squalling into the daylight earlier this month. Weighing in at a healthy 100 pages and with a foreword by proud father Justice Minister Sir Oliver Heald, the Review takes a detailed look at … Continue Reading
Long-time Employment Tribunal practitioners will recall more or less fondly the days when every so often the Judge would suddenly send the parties out of the room mid-hearing and then lean towards one of the representatives and say incredulously “Come on, really?”. When it was said to the other side, that was absolutely the Overriding … Continue Reading
It would be wrong (in fact, outright churlish) to end the year without another poke at the new draft Gender Pay Gap Regulations, or rather the Government Equalities Office’s Response to the public consultation on them. This is broadly a rehearsal of the different views expressed during that consultation process, mostly concerning the mechanics of … Continue Reading
The Apprenticeship Levy, which the Government hopes will help create three million new apprentice positions, is due to come into force in April next year. Draft Regulations have now been produced, setting out how employers should calculate, report and pay their Levy liability. A recent study by the British Chamber of Commerce showed that, just … Continue Reading
Are you off to the Employment Tribunal for the first time soon and don’t know what to wear? Scared of looking a fool under cross-examination? Not sure what to call the Employment Judge? Is it really like Suits? Or do you just need to educate and reassure jittery line management witnesses who have now realised … Continue Reading
Protecting your enhanced severance scheme Some employers pay only the statutory minimum entitlement on a redundancy dismissal, but others recognise that redundancy is a no-fault reason for termination and try to do something to sweeten an otherwise bitter pill. Maybe this is no more than paying in lieu of notice without deduction of tax (for … Continue Reading
In Jo Faragher’s article for the CIPD’s People Management magazine September 2016 “Employee councils and social media are opening up new routes for staff to get their voices heard. But is anyone listening?” she raises a number of interesting questions about the methods and effectiveness of employee feedback The article suggests that the combination of … Continue Reading
