Although, for lawyers, the topic of legal professional privilege has been one of perennial interest, invariably the only encounter individuals outside of the legal profession will have with this topic is if the confidentiality of a commercially sens...

The Deputy Information Commissioner has ruled that the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) must release the names and addresses of respondents in Employment Tribunal cases under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, havin...

Today ACAS has issued what it hopes will be the final version of its Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance. Although amendments have increased its length slightly (to ten pages from eight), the code remains short and concise in comparison to ...

Can an employer dismiss an employee for being a member of a political party? This is a question on some employers' minds following the recent publication of a list containing the names, addresses and in some cases, occupations of BNP members. Whils...

Details have just been published of the annual uprating of compensation limits for tribunal claims and other amounts payable under employment legislation. The new amounts will apply where the relevant event occurs on or after 1 February 2009. For un...

As if anyone needed reminding, 6 April 2009 is a key date for dispute resolution in the workplace. The new regime for handling grievances and disciplinary and dismissal situations is based on the new Acas Code of Practice (the Code) and has been her...

In a consultation paper released this month, the government reveals proposals for employment tribunals to pass on details about whistleblowing claims to appropriate regulators (such as the Health and Safety Executive). The intention is that the alle...

The Court of Appeal has ruled that doctors and dentists employed by NHS bodies in England are entitled to legal representation at disciplinary hearings. The appeal court’s ruling suggests that employees of other public sector organisations sho...

Statistics for 2009-10 released by the Tribunals Service this week reveal that claims to employment tribunals have dramatically increased this year. Despite an overall drop in 2008-9, when the number of claims was 151,028, claims have soared to 236,...

The Government has today published a consultation on employment tribunal reform.  The consultation floats a wide-range of proposals, going well beyond the measures which were rumoured to be up for consideration. The consultation document inclu...

The Supreme Court has overturned decisions of the Court of Appeal and High Court that a music assistant at a primary school should have been allowed legal representation at an internal disciplinary hearing. This decision curtails the scope for empl...

Statistics for April 2010 to March 2011 released by HM Courts and Tribunals Service yesterday reveal that, although the number of claims has fallen since the same period in 2009-10, the 218,100 claims still represent a 44% increase on the 2008-9 fig...

Today, the Government has announced a number of measures aimed at resolving disputes more quickly, reducing the pressure on the employment tribunal system and saving costs for employers and the taxpayer. The Government published its consultation on...

As a follow-up to our previous employer survey on proposals to reform the employment tribunal system, in January 2012 we conducted a second survey seeking views on the introduction of tribunal fees, on the Government’s decision to al...

Last year the Government announced a number of measures aimed at resolving workplace disputes more quickly, reducing the pressure on the employment tribunal system and saving costs for employers and the taxpayer. A number of these changes will take ...

The Government has this afternoon published the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which will, if passed, introduce some of the tribunal and dispute resolution measures previously announced (see HR ...

Employment tribunal claims continue on a downward trend At the start of the year, interim figures released regarding the number of employment tribunal claims already indicated a further drop when ...

Regulations have confirmed that changes to industrial action law introduced by the Trade Union Act 2016 (‘Act’) will be implemented on 1 March 2017. The changes include introducing: a 50% ballot threshold for voter turnout, a 40% ballot ...

The Supreme Court yesterday refused British Gas permission to appeal in the holiday pay case of Lock: the Working Time Regulations are properly to be read purposively to give effect to the CJEU ruling in Lock. Crucially, we now know that repres...

The 1993 Working Time Directive lays down basic principles concerning maximum weekly working hours, amongst other things. For some time now, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament have been debating whether the directive should be revised...

The 1993 Working Time Directive lays down, amongst other things, basic principles concerning maximum weekly working hours. For some time now, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament have been debating whether the directive should be revise...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has issued a judgment that confirms that TUPE can, in some cases, bind incoming employers to pay increases negotiated by the outgoing employer under a collective agreement after the date of the TUPE transfer.  Ba...

Despite a last ditch attempt to reach agreement to change the current rules, the 'opt–out' has survived the latest round of European discussions, namely conciliation talks between the European Council and the European Parliament. The opt&ndash...

While the recent media reporting of swine flu has dwelt on the obvious health and safety issues, the threat of a pandemic, whether now or in the next few months, also raises some practical challenges for HR departments across the country. Necessary...

After a delay of some two months from the usual release date, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) hourly rates that will apply from 1 October 2009, have been announced today, as follows: Workers aged 22 and over: £5.80 (up from the current &pou...

The Department for Work and Pensions has today published further details of its proposal to replace GP sick notes with 'fit notes' with effect from April 2010 and has launched a public consultation on the design and content of the new medical certif...

This morning the House of Lords has handed down its judgment in the case of HMRC v Stringer and others, so concluding the long running saga of how employers should deal with holiday entitlement for those workers who are off sick. The House of Lords&...

We received an excellent response to our recent survey concerning employer reaction to swine flu (Full Article