As the UK’s Parliament has now been dissolved until the general election on 4 July 2024, most draft legislation will no longer proceed. However, some unfinished business is passed through agreement between the government and the opposition parties in what is known as the “wash up” process. These include laws on non-disclosure clauses, fair allocation of tips, additional paternity leave where the mother (or primary adopter) of a child dies, and the statutory code on fire and rehire.

The EAT has decided that an employer’s liability for unlawful discrimination does not transfer under TUPE where the discriminator transfers but the victim of the discrimination does not. The position might be different though in relation to vicarious liability for negligent (rather than discriminatory) acts of an employee.

A recent decision in the Scottish courts offers a stark warning of the need to consider issues of legal privilege at an early stage when conducting an internal investigation. In an article for HR Magazine, John Bracken and Paul Harrison explain what this means in practice for employers.

In 2019, the government consulted on various measures to support families. It has now responded to chapter one of that consultation – Parental leave and pay: Supporting parents and achieving equality – and announced changes to the statutory paternity leave regime to give fathers and partners more choice and flexibility around how and when they take their entitlement.

Restructuring is commonly used by employers to weather the economic storm. For a dismissal to be fair, it needs to be for a fair reason (which includes redundancy) and follow a fair process. However, there are additional considerations that an employer should take into account where disabled employees are affected, which, if breached, could result in financial and reputational high value claims against the employer.

On 17 March 2023, the government published an update on its progress in delivering its Inclusive Britain action plan that it published in March 2022. As part of that update, the government has published guidance for employers on how to take positive action to help people with protected characteristics overcome certain barriers and improve representation in their workforce without falling foul of the unlawful discrimination rules.

The government has published its response to the “Making flexible working the default” consultation that it ran last year, confirming that it will make the right to request flexible working a day one right.

In this article, we highlight some key decisions and legislation of which employers should be aware in 2022 such as the Employment Bill, increase in statutory pay rate in April 20202 and decisions on discrimination and holiday pay

It has been announced that schools in Wales and Scotland are to close from Friday, and an announcement is expected today to extend the closures to English schools as well. In the meantime, more schools and nurseries faced with staff shortages are having to close their doors to some or…

In our last alert, we set out the questions that employers might want to consider in formulating their own procedures in response to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Since then, the virus has spread to over 50 countries worldwide and here, we provide answers to some of the questions employers…