Pregnant workers in the UK are protected by the Equality Act. The legislation makes pregnancy and maternity discrimination unlawful, the relevant period being the start of the worker’s pregnancy to the end of their maternity leave or when they return to work (if earlier).
It is also automatically unfair to dismiss a worker, or to select her for redundancy, when the reason or main reason is connected to her pregnancy or statutory maternity leave. This doesn’t mean that a pregnant woman or a new mum cannot be dismissed, but employers must be careful to ensure that the reason for this is not pregnancy/maternity-related.
People who work part-time are protected from being treated less favourably than their comparable full-time colleagues. The question in Ms Pinaud’s case was whether working more than 50% of full-time hours but not being paid more than 50% of a full-time salary was less favourable treatment.
Ms Pinaud’s part-time working pattern, described as a 50% contract, was 14 days on and 14 days off. Over the course of a year, she was required to be available for 130 days. Compare that with the full-time position, which required workers to be available for 243 days in a year.
Back in 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that a worker in Romania who had been dismissed for his personal use of the internet at work had not been dismissed unfairly because of the employer’s monitoring of his internet usage.
Mr Barbulescu had sent messages to his brother and fiancée via his work-related Yahoo account. He later argued that, by monitoring his use of the internet and by using his Yahoo messages in disciplinary proceedings, his employer had breached his right to respect for private life and correspondence.
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts and others
Holiday pay calculations continue to cause difficulties for employers, with uncertainty still existing over the question of which elements of workers’ pay should and should not be taken into account.
In the case of Mr Willetts and some of his colleagues, an employment tribunal decided that overtime that was purely voluntary, as opposed to being a contractual right or duty, should be included in the holiday pay calculation because it formed part of ‘normal remuneration’. That was notwithstanding the employer’s argument that voluntary overtime lacked the necessary intrinsic link to the performance of the contractual tasks and so should be excluded.
Invoice financiers are gearing up for the introduction of the GDPR which will introduce significant reforms to data protection law, and are keenly interested in the outcome of discussions which are likely between UK Finance and the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”).
It was almost 3 years ago in December 2014 when the Government announced its intention to bring forward legislation outlawing bans on assignment in commercial contracts.
Following an extensive consultation process since 2009 the final version of the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims as dictated by the Ministry of Justice came into force on 1 October 2017.
There has been much debate and comment amongst invoice financiers and others following the recent landmark decision of the High Court in BHL v Leumi ABL Ltd [2017] EWHC 1871 (QB), but we have to point out that the decision did not come as a surprise to everyone.
Escalate, Bermans ground-breaking commercial dispute resolution process for SMEs, has been named ‘Innovation of the Year’ at this year’s British Accountancy Awards.
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