If you have recently read the headline, say, “Directors personally liable for company’s breach of employment contract” and now quail in anticipation of a whole new avenue of attack on your business, fear not. All is not as it seems.… Continue Reading
Here is a new case which you think initially might be quite helpful on the calculation of holiday pay, but which then suddenly veers off into the contractual undergrowth, and actually isn’t. However, what it does do is administer a sharp lesson about the wisdom of trying to incorporate broad principles into individual employment contracts. … 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
And here is why we should be careful when construing employment law statutes about attaching too much importance to contrasts between different legislative provisions. I don’t pretend to have spotted this, so hats off to one reader who did and kindly dropped me a line about it.… Continue Reading
One of the last remaining pieces in the jigsaw of what constitutes “normal pay” for the purpose of calculating statutory holiday pay was slotted into place by the Employment Appeal Tribunal on Monday when it confirmed that such calculations should include voluntary overtime. Willetts and Others v. Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is a claim for … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs presents a webinar to discuss key labour and employment hot topics affecting UK employers. On 28 June 2017 at 4.00 p.m. BST (UK) (5.00 p.m. CEST, 11.00 a.m. EDT, 8.00 a.m. PDT) David Whincup, Annabel Mace and Bryn Doyle will focus on: Business Immigration – An update on recent changes plus the … Continue Reading
Rumbling around at the less well-publicised end of the holiday pay saga is the question of just how far back such claims can go. Changes to the Employment Rights Act 1996 limited this to two years for claims brought after 1 July 2015, but thanks to Bear Scotland Limited, the actual exposure may be very … Continue Reading
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court refused British Gas consent to appeal the Lock holiday pay case any further, finally putting an end to the five year saga of whether an element in respect of commission should have been included in Mr Lock’s holiday pay. Mr Lock himself has long lost interest and left British … Continue Reading
As we have said many times before on this blog, it is all very well for the Courts and Tribunals to say that overtime must be “taken into account” for holiday pay purposes. What is missing for employers are answers to the key issues of how and when, the practical questions which all the senior … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs presents a series of webinars focusing on the key labour and employment issues in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the United States. Given in English by our local labour and employment law experts, each 60-minute webinar comprises a 50-minute presentation covering key “hot topics” in the featured jurisdiction, … Continue Reading
Never, as Winston Churchill would certainly not have said, has any Court judgement awaited so eagerly by so many said so little about so much. The Court of Appeal has now issued its ruling in the Lock holiday pay case, confirming that the Working Time Regulations can and should be read to entitle employees to … Continue Reading
For all those HR stalwarts stuck in the office while their charges are off on holiday, here are some brief bits of news from Acas to help pass the time: Acas’ Holiday Pay guidance has been updated, though not in any way which really helps employers still trying to work out what recent decisions mean … Continue Reading
Right, there it is, and still no one really any the wiser as to what to do about it. The decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in British Gas -v- Lock Lock v British Gas reaches the inevitable conclusion that some commissions must be included in the calculation of holiday pay, but offers no help … Continue Reading
We were in the hallowed legal portals of Farringdon’s Bleeding Heart Restaurant last week for a client dinner on the still vexed issue of holiday pay. “Hallowed legal portals”, because so far as I know, no other restaurant has been cited so frequently in the employment law reports as just the only place to go … Continue Reading
There is a line in, I think, Lawrence of Arabia where a terrified young soldier trapped under fire with a small group of his colleagues asks Peter O’Toole as Lawrence what they are going to do. “Nothing”, drawls O’Toole languidly, “After all, it’s generally best”. And so by a tenuous little link to the question … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs’ Manchester Labour & Employment team invite you to its Autumn Update seminar on 12 November 2015 when the focus will be on the key issues affecting employers. The pace of change in employment law shows no signs of abating, with the new Government now taking steps to implement its own legislative agenda … Continue Reading
Are you sick of speculation about where the wheel will stop spinning on holiday pay? Just want to be given a safe position and stick with it? Do you have any commission or overtime claims against you stayed by the Tribunal pending a definitive steer from case law or legislators? Steps to provide some clarity … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs presents a series of webinars focussing on the key labour and employment issues across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the United States. Presented in English by our local labour and employment law experts, each 45-minute webinar comprises a 30-minute presentation covering key “hot topics” in the featured jurisdiction, followed by … Continue Reading
The long-awaited decision of the Leicester Employment Tribunal in Lock -v- British Gas was issued yesterday. It confirmed, as everyone knew, that holiday pay would have to include an element in respect of commissions, but it also provides for the first time a steer (using the word advisedly, for it is actually no more than … Continue Reading
The Employment Appeal Tribunal, as everyone now knows, has decided that certain types of overtime earnings should be included in the calculation of holiday pay. However, the blanket press coverage of that decision has to some extent obscured the progress of another holiday pay case, Lock –v- British Gas, which is dealing with the same … Continue Reading
Since the decision of the Federal Labour Court (file no.: 9 AZR 844/11) on 14 May we finally have clarity around a longstanding question. If a settlement is agreed that contains a clause which stipulates that all claims resulting from the employment relationship are excluded, this also covers holiday pay claims, according to the most … Continue Reading
The Australian Federal Court has recently upheld a ruling that two fly in-fly out (FIFO) employees who were made redundant were entitled to be paid accrued annual leave entitlements on termination despite being covered by an ‘all-in’ or “rolled-up” rate of pay. The employer provided refrigeration and electrical maintenance services in a remote and relatively … Continue Reading