HR Articles

Long gone are the days when the postman delivered every parcel. Nowadays, we don’t bat an eyelid when the person knocking at the door is a courier in an unfamiliar uniform.

Uber has recently been in the London employment tribunal following two of its drivers bringing claims against the company for not offering national minimum wage, lunch breaks, holiday pay and sick pay.

In the recent case of Globe Motors Inc v TRW Lucas Variety Electric Steering Ltd, the Court of Appeal held that a contractual clause requiring variations to be in writing did not prevent a variation being agreed by a different method i.e. verbally or by conduct.

As part of its new Innovation Plan, the Government has asked businesses across the UK for their views on whether ‘non compete clauses’ in employment contracts are obstructing the UK’s innovativeness and employment opportunities.

The Court of Appeal has recently upheld the High Court’s decision that particular provisions in a staff handbook had been incorporated into an employee’s contract of employment.

The recent case of Bartholomews Agri Food v Thornton has provided some useful guidance to employers who wish to rely on restrictive covenants when an employee leaves. Restrictive covenants (for example that prevent an employee from dealing with the employer’s clients, poaching clients or staff of the employer or working for a competitor) can be difficult to enforce, as highlighted in this case.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld a decision that contacting an employee to raise non-urgent concerns while they were off sick amounted to a repudiatory breach of contract.

The National Minimum Wage is currently paid at four different rates depending on the category of worker, however, from 1st April 2016 a fifth rate will be introduced for workers over the age of 25 years, referred to as the National Living Wage.

In August 2015 we blogged on the launch of the Government’s consultation into whether Sunday trading rules should be devolved to local areas in England and Wales.

This week, regulations 2015 came into effect making any dismissal of an employee on a zero hours contract automatically unfair, if the principal reason for the dismissal is that the employee breached a contractual provision seeking to prohibit him/her from working for another employer. Such provisions are now unlawful. No qualifying period is required to bring such an unfair dismissal claim.