HR Articles

In response to the fears of a very strained health service following Brexit, Boris Johnson has introduced the new NHS visa to allow easier recruitment of overseas doctors and nurses. The cost of the visa will be reduced to £464 which is half the usual fee of £928.

This week, Royal Mail won a High Court injunction against what would have been the first national postal strike for a decade, by up to 110,000 workers and scheduled to take place over the Christmas period.

Employers should be aware that changing or removing adjustments for a disabled employee could amount to a failure to make reasonable adjustments, even if they are replaced with other adjustments.

There are some types of special category data under the GDPR that attract a higher level of protection given their sensitive nature.

There have been some cases in 2019 which have offered employers guidance on restrictive covenants and demonstrated how important it is for employers to review such restrictions carefully.

The Chief Executive (“CE”) of McDonalds has this week been fired following a romantic relationship with a fellow employee. Despite the fact that the fast food giant acknowledged that the relationship was consensual, the CE was dismissed as he had violated company policy by engaging in the relationship.

Employers can be held legally responsible (vicariously liable) for the discriminatory actions of their employees which have taken place in the course of employment. To avoid being held liable, an employer would have to show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the discriminatory actions from occurring.

The Government launched its consultation “Good Work Plan: Proposals to support families” earlier this year.

The Court of Appeal (“CoA”) has disagreed with an Employment Appeal Tribunal’s (“EAT”) interpretation of a leaked email. Instead the CoA held that the correspondence between a lawyer and the Respondent, referring to the possibility of dismissing the Claimant by redundancy, was covered by Legal Privilege.

In López Ribalda and others v Spain, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that it was not a breach of Article 6 (right to a fair trial) or Article 8 (right to respect for a private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, to covertly record employees as part of an investigation into suspected theft and for the recording to be used at trial.