Is it harassment to text a colleague in the wee small hours? Not accordingy to nkojihuy790- Mainali v New Godalming Sushi Limited. Mr Mainali was a sushi chef in business with a colleague, Mr Lohani, to provide sushi at Waitrose. Me Lohani was the main shareholder in the business. Relationships deteriorated. Mr Lohani sent a rota to staff on a group WhatsApp after midnight. Mr Mainali was furious, saying it was wrong to bother staff at that time of night. He told Mr Lohani to ‘go f*** yourself’.
In our autumn 2019 Briefing we welcomed the Law Commission’s final report on Electronic Execution of Documents and set out our views on certain practical matters including the crucial question of whether those documents requiring attestation of the primary signature by a witness necessitated the physical presence of the witness at the point of signature.
Our summary of the requirements for formalities of contracts likely to be encountered by invoice financiers referred to above also explains the circumstances in which certain contracts executed as deeds require formalities such as in some cases the presence of a witness.
As the era of unusually low interest rates comes to a close, it is worth paying attention to what rate of interest the courts are likely to allow in relation to successful financial claims.
Statue provides that in general terms once judgment has been granted in the English courts, interest of 8% per annum will be awarded on the judgment sum until it is paid.
Financiers have been, together with almost all other litigants, subject to what seems to be an ever-increasing spiral of expense in navigating the various fees and charges payable under the court system, a trend which is been in place now for almost 2 decades.
Last month saw the tabling in the House of Commons of the EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. If brought into force, the Bill provides that all EU derived legislation will fall away unless it is specifically retained by a certain date (December 2023, with the option to extend until December 2026).
That means that employment law staples, including TUPE, part-time/fixed-term worker regulations and holiday pay rules may disappear. The government will decide which laws it wants to retain. There is no indication yet of what’s likely to be in and out.
Section 123(1) of the Equality Act 2010 says that discrimination claims must be brought within three months of the alleged discriminatory act or such other period that the tribunal thinks is ‘just and equitable’ in the circumstances. An extension of time will be the exception not the rule. The tribunal can consider anything it thinks is relevant when making that decision, including the length of the delay and the reasons for it, the effect of delay on the cogency of evidence and how quickly the employee acted once they knew that they had a potential legal claim. The employment appeal tribunal (EAT) has looked at a case recently where the tribunal had considered the merits of the potential claim when deciding whether to grant an extension of time.
Employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR). Calculating the holiday pay of someone with no normal working hours can be tricky. Some employers have adopted a percentage approach, by assuming that holiday accrues at a rate of 12.07% of hours worked.
This is based on the following calculation: 52 weeks – 5.6 weeks’ holiday = 46.4 weeks; and 5.6 weeks is 12.07% of 46.4 weeks. The Supreme Court has looked recently at whether this is the right thing to do and what happens when an employee is both part time and only works at certain times of the year, for example on a term time only basis.
When there is a TUPE transfer, all of the transferor’s (the original employer) rights, powers, duties and liabilities connected to the transferring employee’s contract of employment transfer to the transferee (the new employer). The EAT has looked recently at whether a share incentive plan (SIP), whose terms are contained in a collateral contract rather than the contract of employment, transfers during a TUPE transfer.
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