The government announced before the dissolution of parliament for the general election, that it would increase the threshold for bringing a bankruptcy petition from ÂŁ750 to ÂŁ5,000. This means that if a person’s liabilities are less than ÂŁ5,000, it would not be possible to recover the sums owned by that individual by the way of […]
The Acas helpline is being expanded so that its advisers will be able to answer queries previously dealt with by other agencies. From 1st April 2015 the helpline has been able to answer queries on the following topics: the national minimum wage; working for an employment agency; working hours, rest breaks and holidays; agricultural workers […]
This question was revisited by the Court of Appeal in Smith v Carillion. This issue arises when a worker is supplied by an employment business and brings a claim that he or she is an employee of the client. The Appellant in Smith worked in the construction industry for over 20 years. He was supplied […]
“Whistleblowing” is a term used to identify situations in which an employee reports a suspected wrongdoing at the workplace, such as health and safety concerns. As a result of this, the employee makes a “protected disclosure” as defined under the relevant whistleblowing legislation (the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform […]
The employment tribunal has delivered the long anticipated decision on calculating holiday pay in Lock v British Gas.  Mr Lock was a sales consultant whose salary included a basic element and commission. Around 60% of his income was made up of commission, paid in arrears and calculated on the number of sales achieved by […]
George Osbourne announced in the 2015 Budget that from 6th April 2015 National Insurance Contributions for employees under the age of 21 will be abolished, with the exception of those earning more than ÂŁ42,285 a year. It is estimated that employers will save ÂŁ500 per year for an employee under the age of 21 who […]
Last week it was announced that two government departments have received fines amounting to ÂŁ1.5 million pounds for breaching the off-payroll contract rules. The breach that gave rise to the Ministry of Defence’s fine was due to failing to seek assurance from a number of workers on their tax arrangements as a result of an […]
Shared Parental Leave (SPL) is a paid family friendly leave that mothers and their spouses/partners may take when the baby is due on or after 5th April 2015. The idea is to give parents a choice in how to look after their offspring during the first year of life. As a result, assuming eligibility criteria […]
Employees have the right to be accompanied by specific companions to meetings, where that meeting could result in formal warnings and disciplinary actions. Until recently the companion chosen by the employee was subject to a test of reasonableness and, further, employers could refuse the presence of certain companions. This meant that, where there was a […]
How much should employers expect to recover when an employee leaves the company, breaches contractual restrictive covenants and, for example, solicits clients, poaches staff, uses confidential information or joins a competitor? Typically, a degree of secrecy will be involved and the breach may not become apparent for some time after the event. Consequently, it can […]
