HR Articles

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we witnessed ‘the Great Resignation’ in which many workers used the lockdowns to re-evaluate what was important to them in respect of achieving a work-life balance and redundancies following the UK’s Furlough Scheme.

A new law, ‘The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022’ came into force on 21 July, which has the effect of allowing employment businesses to supply agency staff during strike action.  

On 25 July 2022, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published guidance and revised application forms and tables to simplify the UK Binding Corporate Rules (UK BCRs) approval process for controllers and processors.

Employers seeking to make changes to employees’ contracts usually do so in one of three ways.

In the recent case of Tesco Stores Ltd v USDAW and ors, the Court of Appeal has allowed Tesco’s appeal against the High Court’s decision to grant an injunction restraining it from firing and rehiring employees in order to remove a ‘permanent’ contractual entitlement to enhanced pay.

Calculating holiday leave and pay for atypical workers has always been a complex topic. 

Previously many organisations ‘rolled up’ holiday pay for such workers meaning that they received enhanced salary instead of leave, but this was ruled unlawful following a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2006. 

This summer has seen a surge in industrial action largely related to rising inflation and the hugely publicised cost of living crisis. Further planned strikes are currently due to go ahead on 27 July, 30 July, 18 August and 20 August. This is expected to cause severe disruption and we answer some commonly asked questions regarding industrial action below. 

The UK seems to be suffering from a shortage of talent and there are a number of reasons for this. One of the reasons is demographics, with the baby boomers fast retiring, leaving generations much smaller in size behind them in the workplace.

Recently, many employers have been considering restructuring their business, particularly in light of the global pandemic and various ways of working. We explore the considerations when undertaking a fair redundancy process.

A change in the law from 1 July 2022 increases opportunities for employees to be signed off work when sick. Nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists and physiotherapists can now sign statements of fitness for work, also known as GP’s fit notes. This change has been brought in to ease the burden on GPs.

Fire and rehire involves terminating an employee’s existing employment contract and offering to rehire them on new terms, usually as a last resort, where an employer cannot make the proposed changes using existing powers in the employee’s contract and the employee has not given their agreement to the changes.