Employment

The Government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme portal is expected to open towards the end of April 2020 meaning that employers will soon be able to claim back furloughed employees' wages. With this in mind, we thought we'd clarify the current position on some of the FAQs we are being asked by employers: What is covered?/ What can I reclaim? Employers can reclaim up to 80% of their Furloughed employees' gross salaries up to a limit of £2,500 plus employer NI contributions and minimum auto-enrolment pension contributions. This 80% does not include non-monetary benefits i.e. health insurance. Which businesses are eligible for [...]

The law on whistleblowing is changing and it’s changing massively. If the reason or principal reason for an employee’s dismissal is the fact that they have made a “protected disclosure” (in other words they have blown the whistle), then the dismissal is automatically unfair. Unlike in ordinary unfair dismissal cases, there is no need for an employee to have been employed for the usual 2 year qualifying period to be able to bring that claim. Also, the usual limit of up to 12 months’ gross pay for damages capped at £86,444 (as of 6 April 2019) for future loss of [...]

Religion or belief is one of the nine ‘protected characteristics’ covered by the Equality Act 2010. This means that you are protected from being discriminated against (predominantly by your employer) as a result of your religion or belief. ‘Belief’ is defined under the Equality Act as “any religious or philosophical belief”. It appears that the intention of the draftsman was not to incorporate veganism as a philosophical belief. In 2009 when the final draft of the Code of Practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission was produced (required to be considered by Tribunals in Equality Act cases) veganism was removed [...]

Despite its unobjectifiable obviousness in the modern day, Equal Pay has been a topic under the glare of the employment law spotlight for some time and something the public have become increasingly passionate about. As an employment lawyer, it would be nice to believe that the public were as interested in employment statistics and reform as we are. However the far more plausible explanation is that modern day transparency, the #MeToo campaign and the Harvey Weinstein scandal have kickstarted the much-needed motivation in order to achieve meaningful change. It was less than a year ago that employers were made by [...]

Harassment at work is a huge subject for both employees (who may feel that they are being harassed) and employers (who can find themselves liable for acts of harassment carried out by their employees). The damages that can be awarded for harassment, and other types of discrimination, are potentially unlimited so it’s a big issue. Unlawful harassment can be on a number of grounds, including race, sex, disability, age, etc. Examples include unwanted sexual advances, touching and unwanted banter. In the case of Evans v Xactly (commonly known as the “fat ginger pikey” case), the employee worked as a sales executive but [...]