Employment

Further to our previous article, Lockdown – what do employers do now?, we have now received further guidance from the government in respect of its Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. You can review the complete guidance here In summary: The scheme is open to all UK employers that had a PAYE scheme in place on 28…

Lockdown – what do employers do now? As the UK goes into lockdown to protect the spread of Covid-19, many employers are set to face a significant downturn of work.  We explore some of the key questions for employers during this time. Who is allowed to go to work during lockdown? All non-essential businesses have…

The government has introduced further emergency measures in response to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Key changes for employers to be aware of are: Employees and workers will be allowed to take emergency volunteer leave (unpaid) in blocks of either two, three or four weeks provided they produce an Emergency Volunteering Certificate. This applies to those…

Covid-19 (the Corona virus) pandemic has led to unprecedented times across our workforces. With the Government advising the public to avoid public interaction many industries and sectors have noticed a dramatic drop in business leaving many unable to pay staff and considering redundancies. Employers faced with the need to make changes to their workforce may…

As fears of a coronavirus pandemic continue to grow, some businesses are preventing their employees attending certain events or asking them to work from home. This is not an option for every business, so what five steps can your business take to prepare. Stay informed. Good sources of guidance: ACAS: https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus CIPD:  https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/health-safety/coronavirus-factsheet Government website:…

Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets out certain rules about the information that must be given to employees when they start work. In practice, most well written contracts of employment would also contain the information required. As part of the Government’s ‘Good Work plan’ the government plans to change the scope of…

The #MeToo campaign has exposed many occasions where Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) have been used as an attempt to prevent employees speaking out about sexual harassment in the workplace. The difficulty for employers is there are no minimum requirements as to how they should act to prevent and deal with such behaviour in the first…

What is bumping? Bumping is a term that is heard of when talking, primarily about redundancy situations. To put it in simple terms bumping is a process of moving a potentially redundant employee (A) into another role and dismissing the employee currently performing that role (B). Therefore, for it to be a true bumping situation…

What is the current position? Parents are entitled to take time off work following the death of a child under the age of 18. There is no obligation on employers to pay their employees during this time and the right only applies to parents. During a government consultation last year, feedback was that the current…

Expected to be introduced for Private Companies in April 2020. Off-payroll working rules – or IR35 to you and me – are expected to be introduced for Private Companies in April 2020. The change IR35 intends to shift responsibility for determining how a contractor’s fee should be taxed from the contractor and their personal services…

Jade Linton, a Senior Associate Employment Lawyer at Thursfields Solicitors, has been asked to speak at a major public sector conference in London. She will be giving an employment law update at the seventh Annual Public Sector Update for payroll and HR professionals to be held at PwC’s London offices on Thursday 6 February. Jade…