Insights & News
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Executive pay ratio reporting – sound familiar?
04 September 2017The Government has recently announced it will take forward a number of proposals for corporate governance reform relating to employment. Media reports have focused on the watering down of earlier plans for worker representation on boards, which has predictably been attacked by unions.
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BAME footballers, unconscious bias and the workplace
08 August 2017A study published last year analysed the racial composition of professional football club leadership, looking at players, coaches and key decision-makers in Premier League and Football League clubs.
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Latest decision on holiday pay - regular voluntary overtime payments to be included
07 August 2017The EAT has clarified that regular voluntary overtime payments form part of “normal remuneration” and should be included in the calculation of holiday pay for the purposes of the four weeks’ minimum annual leave entitlement required by EU law.
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Thorny issues arising from the abolition of Employment Tribunal fees
04 August 2017The Supreme Court ruled last week that Employment Tribunal (“ET”) fees are unlawful. The case has significant constitutional and political implications, but also raises a number of thorny practical issues. We explore some of these issues here and will provide further updates as matters develop.
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Right to paid parental bereavement leave is coming
04 August 2017The Parental Bereavement (Pay and Leave) Bill, introduced into Parliament last month, would entitle employed parents who have lost a child to take statutory paid leave to allow them time to grieve. Although this is a private member’s bill, it is supported by the Government and would meet a Conservative manifesto promise to ensure “bereavement support” for employees – so there is a good chance it will become law in due course.
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FCA launches consultation on the extension of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime
26 July 2017On 26 July 2017, the FCA outlined its proposals for the extension of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime. The FCA intends that these rules, which came into force on 7 March 2016, be extended to all sectors within the financial services industry and that they will essentially replace the Approved Persons Regime. Though an implementation date will be set by the Treasury, the FCA expects this to be from 2018.
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Employment Tribunal fees ruled unlawful by Supreme Court
26 July 2017The Supreme Court (“SC”) has unanimously ruled that the legislation requiring fees to be paid for bringing Employment Tribunal (“ET”) claims is unlawful and should be quashed. In one of the most remarkable employment law judgments of recent times, the SC held that ET fees interfere unjustifiably with the right of access to justice and discriminate unlawfully against women.
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Whistleblowing public interest test considered by Court of Appeal
13 July 2017The Court of Appeal (“CA”) has considered the meaning of the “public interest” in whistleblowing cases. Disclosures which only affect a group of individuals within one employer can be in the public interest, but in most cases additional factors will also be needed.
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Supreme Court upholds right to equal pension for same-sex partner
13 July 2017The Supreme Court (“SC”) has made an important ruling in a case brought by a gay man seeking to establish that, if he died, his husband should be entitled to the same survivor’s pension as a wife in a heterosexual marriage would receive. The Court ruled that an exemption in the Equality Act 2010 (“EqA”), allowing employers to exclude civil partners from pension benefits accruing before December 2005, was incompatible with EU law and should be disapplied.
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The future of employment law – Taylor-ed to fit?
11 July 2017The Review of Employment Practices in the Modern Economy, commissioned by the prime minister last October and chaired by Matthew Taylor, has produced its long awaited report.
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Employment status – the power of three: employee, worker and self-employed
04 July 2017In an article for Employment Solicitor, Karen Baxter takes a look at recent cases which have tested the boundaries of employment status and assess how employers can keep pace with the changing market as the world of work evolves.
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What are the options for the UK and EU to reach a compromise over free movement and access to the single market?
23 June 2017Theresa May’s ill-fated snap election seems to have transformed the UK’s national zeitgeist, not least in the public narrative over Brexit.
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What did the Queen’s Speech have to say about employment law?
22 June 2017Employment issues were quite prominent in the Conservative election manifesto, with Theresa May making the bold assertion that she was promising “the greatest expansion in workers’ rights by any Conservative government in history”. In the event, the political reality of minority government and the exigencies of legislating for Brexit have inevitably resulted in a rather more modest reform agenda.
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Tribunal finds father entitled to full pay for shared parental leave
14 June 2017An Employment Tribunal has decided that it was direct sex discrimination not to pay full salary to a father taking shared parental leave, in circumstances where a mother taking maternity leave during the same period would have received full pay.
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Employer must provide ‘adequate facility’ to take annual leave, says Advocate General
14 June 2017An Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) has given his opinion that employers must provide an “adequate facility” for workers to exercise the right to paid annual leave under the EU Working Time Directive (“WTD”). On termination of employment, the employer must pay in lieu of untaken leave for the period during which the worker did not have such a facility to take it.
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What might the election result mean for employment law?
09 June 2017A handful of results remain outstanding at the time of writing, but it seems that the general election is going to end in a hung Parliament with the Conservative Party not having won quite enough seats to have an outright majority.
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The future world of work: Lewis Silkin’s perspectives on regulating the work relationship
25 May 2017Profound underlying changes in technology and demography are transforming work.
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Election manifestos – what are the main political parties pledging on employment issues?
25 May 2017Employment issues have emerged as a major election battleground, reflecting the aspirations of the Conservatives and Labour - and perhaps to a lesser extent the Liberal Democrats – to be recognised as the ‘workers’ party’. Theresa May has rather boldly claimed to be pledging “the greatest expansion in workers’ rights by any Conservative government in history”.
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How to divorce the EU, in three uneasy steps
05 May 2017The European Council published its official guidelines for Brexit negotiations on 29 April 2017. Lewis Silkin reported on EU Council President Donald Tusk’s circulation of negotiation guidelines to EU leaders at the end of March 2017, and the newly published guidelines are consistent with the earlier version.
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Supreme Court clarifies indirect discrimination test
11 April 2017The Supreme Court has given a clear explanation of how the test for indirect discrimination works, looking in particular at whether it is necessary to know why a group is disadvantaged by an employer’s policy.