Category Archive Employment Law

New legislation is due to come into force forcing employers to take a more proactive rather than a reactive approach to sexual harassment. The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 comes into force this October. Damages for harassment are unlimited. A successful tribunal claim for sexual harassment, under the new legislation, can attract an additional compensation uplift of up to 25%. This significantly increases the potential exposure to financial liability for businesses.

Here is a summary of some recent significant cases:-

The Supreme Court ruled that employees who have been underpaid for their holidays can claim for the shortfall even if more than three months has elapsed between those underpayments. This increases the employers financial liability who are calculating holiday pay incorrectly.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal handed down a judgment on when employees behaviour on social media outside of the workplace can instigate disciplinary action by their employers. A sensitive matter as employees want to add their voices to the virtual debate.

The Supreme Court decided that in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights Deliveroo cyclists are not employees.

Unfair dismissal and redundancy pay will increase from the 6 April 2023:-

The maximum amount of “a week’s pay” for the purpose of calculating a redundancy payment or for various awards including the basic or additional award of compensation for unfair dismissal will increase from £571 to £643.

The limit on the amount of the compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £93,878 to £105,707.