On the 13th June 2018 the Supreme Court gave judgment that a plumber could claim to be a regular worker despite being described as self – employed in his contract. As he had to use the firm’s van for call outs and had to work for a prescribed amount of time weekly he was under the firm’s direction, subordinate to it and an integral part of the operation.
Share This:-When considering employing at a senior level today the employer has to ensure that the contract takes into account the following issues:-
i) Bonuses and the form they take, as well as the salary
ii) Notice periods
iii) Restrictive covenants
iv) Equity and tax
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The Supreme Court has ruled against the fees for employment tribunals which they said discriminated against the low paid and females.
Lord Reed, giving the lead judgement, with whom six other judges, including the President and Deputy President, agreed said the decrease in the number of claims issued due to the fees was inconsistent with access to justice.
The Government has now started the process of refunding the fees that have been charged since July 2013 which is believed to be about £32,000,000.
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Commercial property solicitors in London have ‘inboxed’ their employment departments to brace themselves for a substantial increase in contract work.
Purchasers have spent £1billion on retail space in central London in the first six months of this year originating particularly from Singapore and Hong Kong. The City unfortunately is not faring as well due to the Brexit vote and the uncertainty of its position with the European Union.
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Employment solicitors in London are bracing themselves for a flurry of activity in the preparation and reviewing of settlement agreements and tribunal proceedings.
Banks such as Credit Suisse, Barclays and Deutsche are reducing their investment banking departments and some are reducing staff numbers by thousands. Challenging market conditions, unprecedented low levels of client business, exposure to illiquid inventory and an inflexible cost base have together conspired to create an extremely depressing scene.
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Commercial solicitors in London with strong employment departments are bracing themselves for a surge in fresh instructions as new retail ventures, food and tech businesses commence trading weekly.
There is a strong bullish sentiment as to hiring new staff currently in this sector.
Romford in Essex is the start-up capital of Great Britain with 6,188 new business start-ups last year.
Share This:-Time off to accompany a pregnant woman to ante-natal appointments
This new right will be available to employees and qualifying agency workers. It applies to the pregnant woman’s husband, civil partner or partner (including same-sex partner), the father or parent of a pregnant woman’s child, and intended parents in a surrogacy situation who meet specified conditions.
The entitlement is to unpaid leave for up to two appointments, capped at 6.5 hours per appointment. Employees will have the right to bring claims in the Employment Tribunal if their employer unreasonably refuses to let them take time off for this purpose.
Employers can offer provision more generous than the statutory entitlement and also decide to make the leave paid, if they wish to do so.
The Government has issued guidance for employers on the new right. See also our comments on it here.
A similar right for adopters will come into force in April 2015.
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The Supreme Court has held (Clyde & Co LLP and another v Bates van Winkelhof [2014] UKSC 32,) that a former equity partner of a law firm incorporated as a limited liability partnership (LLP) was clearly a worker and therefore eligible to bring a whistleblowing claim against the LLP. As a result of this decision, LLP members will become entitled to a range of other statutory rights which are available to workers, but not the genuinely self-employed. These include the right to paid annual leave, limits on working time and protection from less favourable treatment if they work part-time. This significant judgment extends protection to many thousands of members of firms, often those working in heavily regulated industries such as law, accountancy and financial services.
A checklist explaining the significance of the distinction between an employee, a worker and a self-employed contractor has been produced.
This has been produced by one of our recommended solicitors.
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