Employers have to make reasonable adjustments if they apply a provision, criterion or practice that puts someone with a disability at a particular disadvantage. The duty only applies if the employer knows or could reasonably...more
The UK government has announced changes to employment law from 1 January 2024. It is branding some of the reforms, notably in relation to holiday and record keeping requirements, as a post-Brexit opportunity to remove...more
After a fairly quiet summer period, there were developments on several fronts in October. The new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment became law, although is not yet in force. The Supreme Court...more
Parliament returned from its summer recess in September, allowing proposals on preventing sexual harassment to progress and the right to request a more predictable contract to become law. Angela Rayner’s speech to the TUC...more
In Ponticelli Ltd v Gallagher, the Court of Session in Scotland decided that a share incentive plan transferred under TUPE. Even though the employee’s right to participate was not contained in his contract of employment, it...more
The UK ICO has provided guidance for employers on responding to employee subject access requests. Although much of the content reflects existing guidance, it deals specifically with issues such as requests made in the context...more
In 2015, various UK government departments withdrew employees’ right to have union subscriptions deducted automatically from their pay. In Secretary of State for the Home Department v Cox, the Court of Appeal of England and...more
Last week the UK government announced that it was planning to make changes to the Working Time Regulations and one aspect of TUPE. It has now published a consultation paper providing further detail about the proposed reforms....more
The government has announced that it will not repeal most retained EU law at the end of the year as originally planned. However, it is planning to use Brexit-related freedoms to amend some aspects of the Working Time...more
The Equality Act permits some forms of positive action to address disadvantage, different needs or low participation rates amongst groups sharing a protected characteristic. The UK government has published new guidance to...more
In March 2021, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced that it would review the UK’s whistleblowing framework but did not give a timescale for the exercise. BEIS’ successor, the Department...more
In our Employment Horizons publication, we have reflected on some of the key themes impacting multi-national employers in 2023. These include responding to inflationary pressures and the cost of living crisis, remote and...more
Last year the UK government promised to introduce a statutory Code of Practice setting out the standards employers should observe if they are considering dismissing and re-engaging staff as a way of changing employee terms...more
During January the UK government introduced legislation to impose minimum service level requirements in some sectors during industrial action. It is also consulting on how to calculate holiday entitlement for part year and...more
The UK government has responded to last year’s consultation on making flexible working the default. The response confirms that the right to request flexible working will be available to all employees, regardless of their...more
In Hilaire v Luton Borough Council, the UK EAT found that it was not a reasonable adjustment simply to slot a disabled employee into a new organisational structure as part of a redundancy exercise. Although this would have...more
As part of its project to update the Employment Practices Data Protection Code, the UK ICO has published its second topic-specific draft guidance for consultation. The guidance covers processing information about workers’...more
This article is the second in a series on areas impacted by AI. It focuses on the upcoming implementation of a new Consumer Duty, a higher standard of behaviour for financial services firms directly or indirectly interacting...more
The UK government recently announced its support for two more Private Members’ Bills. These will give employees additional protection against redundancy if they are pregnant or returning from family-related leave and a new...more
In the discussion paper, the UK financial supervisory authorities have not provided a new legal framework or their intended future approaches for regulating the use of AI and machine learning in financial services. However,...more
In 2021 the UK ICO said that it would revise its Employment Practices Data Protection Code to reflect the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018. It has now published its first topic-specific guidance on employee monitoring in...more
In separate developments, the UK government announced two potentially significant changes for employers. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill could mean that at least some EU-derived employment law will expire on...more
There were a surprising number of employment-related developments in the UK over the traditional summer holiday period. We highlight new employment status guidance, government support for neonatal care leave and fair...more
The UK’s Supreme Court has confirmed that “part year” workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ holiday. Their holiday entitlement should not be pro-rated to reflect their actual hours of work, even though this means that they get...more
The Court of Appeal in England and Wales decided that an employer was entitled to dismiss and offer to re-engage employees on new terms in order to remove pay protection it had originally referred to as “permanent”. The...more