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.
Communication between a client and their solicitors for the purposes of getting legal advice, and any documents prepared for the purposes of litigation, are ‘privileged’. This means that they do not have to be disclosed to the other party during any legal proceedings. In University of Dundee v Chakraborty, the employer argued that an original grievance investigation report acquired retrospective privilege and therefore did not need to be disclosed in proceedings.
Employers may be familiar with employees seeking extensions of time to lodge late employment tribunal claims, for a variety of reasons. In MTN-1 v Daly, the EAT was faced with a case where the boot was on the other foot, and it was the employer who needed more time.
Can continued lateness justify dismissal? The EAT in Tijani v The House of Commons Commission held that it could. The employee had been a cleaner at the House of Commons since June 2015. She was given a first written warning in December 2017 for being late 17 out of 20 days. She got a final written warning, to stay in place for 24 months, for continued lateness in April 2018. The employee didn’t appeal and was told that further absence could result in dismissal. She was still frequently between 2 and 33 minutes late – 43 more times by January 2019 and 7 additional late arrivals before the formal process began. The employee was dismissed. She appealed, but the appeals officer said her record showed no significant improvement even discounting the times when she was late by only a couple of minutes. The appeal failed.
Acas has published new guidance for employers on using the right to suspend as part of a disciplinary process. Suspension is often touted as a neutral act – to maintain the status quo during an investigation and protect evidence, witnesses, and the business.
However, it can feel anything but neutral to the suspended employee who may be entirely innocent of the allegations raised against them.
Most employers will have experienced an employee who suffers badly with a bout of Covid, and which then develops into post-Covid-19 syndrome, or ‘long Covid’.
An employment tribunal has looked at a case where an employee tried to bring a discrimination claim linked to her long-Covid, in relation to a dismissal which took place only a couple of weeks after her initial Covid infection.
Bill Shankly, the first great manager of Liverpool FC, is quoted as saying: ‘Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.’ Anyone with a season ticket, or who is related to someone with a season ticket, will appreciate that sentiment. Football fandom can seem like a pretty strong and forceful belief when viewed from the outside, especially on match days. But is supporting a football team a philosophical belief, on a par with other religious and philosophical beliefs, which attracts protection from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010? Not according to the employment tribunal at a preliminary hearing in McClung v Doosan Babcock.
Sophie Robertson (pictured), qualified as a Solicitor in September 2019 and joined Bermans upon qualification as a Solicitor in the Employment team in Liverpool.
The Women and Equalities Committee survey in 2021 found that that nearly a third of women (31%) had missed work because of menopausal symptoms.
According to the NHS, the menopause is “when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally.”
Unfortunately for those affected several side effects can accompany the physical change, this can include hot flushes, fatigue, memory loss, difficulty in concentrating, headaches, night sweats, low mood/anxiety, and insomnia.
| 
