Employment UK

  • September 23, 2024

    UK Watchdog Thins Out Pension Plan Reporting Rules

    The Pensions Regulator said Monday it has scaled back the amount of data that retirement schemes are expected to submit under new funding regulations, which went live this weekend.

  • September 23, 2024

    Ex-National Trust Employee Jailed For 6 Years Over £1M Fraud

    A former National Trust building surveyor who defrauded Europe's largest heritage charity out of more than £1 million ($1.3 million) has been jailed for six-and-a-half years, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

  • September 23, 2024

    Driving Watchdog Liable For Outdated Evacuation Training

    Britain's driving standards regulator discriminated against a disabled officer by failing to provide refresher training for its staff on how to use an evacuation chair in an emergency, a tribunal has ruled.

  • September 20, 2024

    Pregnant Manager Forced To Resign Wins £350K

    An Employment Tribunal has awarded £350,705 ($466,246) to a supermarket account manager at an outsourcing company after bosses pushed her out while she was pregnant.

  • September 20, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    The past week in London has seen crypto exchange Binance face a new claim from the co-founder of SO Legal, a U.S. immersive art company take on a Bristol venue for copyright violations and Blake Morgan LLP hit with a pension schemes claim by The Trust for Welsh Archeology. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • September 20, 2024

    Solicitor Struck Off Over Blackmail Conviction

    A London tribunal has banned a solicitor from practicing in the profession after he was convicted by a criminal court of blackmailing a company director in a board meeting.

  • September 20, 2024

    Pension Savings Plans Warned Over 'Deflation Spiral' Risk

    Pension schemes should make contingency plans now for falling inflation, a consultancy has said, as it warned that failure to prepare could result in a destabilizing rush to sell off U.K. government bonds.

  • September 20, 2024

    Harrods, Met Face Potential Litigation Over Rape Claims

    Lawyers are investigating potential claims against the Metropolitan Police and London luxury department store Harrods over allegations that its former staff were raped and sexually abused by Mohamed Al-Fayed, its billionaire owner and former chair.

  • September 19, 2024

    Ex-Bolt Head Denies App Feature Built To Avoid Worker Status

    The former head of Bolt U.K. Thursday denied that the ride-hail app introduced a feature enabling drivers to share vehicles as a way to keep them from achieving worker status, as he gave evidence to a tribunal.

  • September 19, 2024

    Lloyds Bank Beats Employees' Settled Hybrid Working Claims

    An employment tribunal has nixed claims against Lloyds Bank after ruling that three employees were unlikely to prove the bank had wrongly rejected their request to work from home.

  • September 19, 2024

    Record Number Of Pension Deals Reported In First Half Of '24

    A record number of companies in the U.K. carried out pension risk transfer transactions during the first six months of 2024, offloading £15.3 billion ($20.3 billion) of pension plan liabilities to bigger players, Hymans Robertson said in a report.

  • September 19, 2024

    Food Giant's Sacking Of Cleaner Was Rushed And Unfair

    A tribunal has ordered a U.K. food supply giant to compensate a cleaner for unfair dismissal after it concluded that the business carried out a rushed disciplinary process plagued by "serious failings" and the worker took improper absences.

  • September 19, 2024

    Gov't Urged To Push Collective Defined Benefit Pension Plans

    The U.K. government should push forward new collective pension plans with "bold and innovative" thinking to address Britain's retirement adequacy challenge, Hymans Robertson LLP said Thursday.

  • September 18, 2024

    Statistics Body Staff Lose COVID-19 Survey Safety Claim

    The U.K.'s national statistics body did not subject four field interviewers to any detriment resulting from their alleged whistleblowing over safety concerns amid a return to in-person interviews during the coronavirus pandemic, a tribunal has ruled.

  • September 18, 2024

    Boxing Body Knocks Out Referee's Race Bias Case

    A Black boxing referee has lost his bias case against the sport's governing body, after an employment tribunal ruled that its decision to stop giving him fights was tied to his defamation claim rather than his race.

  • September 18, 2024

    Dashboards Program To Use Gov't Login Service Details

    Savers will be able to use the U.K. government's standardized login service to prove their identity and access the long-awaited pension dashboards once they go live, the program has said.

  • September 18, 2024

    Black Staff Win £64K After Council Turns Blind Eye To Racism

    An employment tribunal has ordered a local government authority to pay more than £64,150 ($85,000) to two staff members after it harassed, victimized and racially discriminated against them for being Black.

  • September 18, 2024

    Eversheds Steers £200M Pension Deal For Bus Co. Arriva

    Insurance giant Aviva said Wednesday that it has taken on £200 million ($264 million) worth of pension liabilities from a retirement savings plan sponsored by bus operator Arriva Merseyside Ltd., in a deal guided by Eversheds Sutherland LLP.

  • September 17, 2024

    Cos. Risk Offside Call On Contractor Tax After HMRC Win

    The U.K. Supreme Court's decision Monday that Premier League referees count as employees for tax purposes means many companies may have to reassess their arrangements with contractors or risk higher tax costs in the future, tax experts say.

  • September 17, 2024

    School To Pay Math Teacher £850K Over Baseless Firing

    A Catholic secondary school has agreed to pay £850,000 ($1.2 million) in a settlement to its former head of math, after a tribunal ruled the school fired him for refusing to take up a less senior position.

  • September 17, 2024

    Competitiveness Outranks Climate In New EU Commission

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shifted her focus from climate change to boosting competitiveness as she proposed her team of commissioners for the next five-year mandate Tuesday, handing out key jobs covering everything from competition enforcement to trade policy.

  • September 17, 2024

    Social Worker Wins £56K Over 'Gender-Fluid' Dog Debate

    A social worker sanctioned for expressing "gender critical" views in a discussion about a colleague's dress-wearing "gender-fluid" dog has won £56,000 ($74,000) after her employer conceded it had harassed her.  

  • September 17, 2024

    Drivers Claim Bolt App's 'Full Control' Makes Them Workers

    Drivers for Bolt testified Tuesday that the "full control" exercised by the ride-hailing app over aspects of their job means that they should be classed as workers as they pursue a mass claim against the company at a London employment tribunal. 

  • September 17, 2024

    BBC Must Face Bias Claims From Disabled Accountant

    The BBC has failed to get a 55-year-old accountant's age and disability discrimination claims axed, as an employment tribunal ruled that she could still prove her case even though she filed it four months late.

  • September 17, 2024

    Lawyer Cleared Of Dishonesty Over Insurance Failure

    A solicitor was cleared of dishonesty on Tuesday after he was accused of lying to his insurer to hide the acquisition by his company of another firm's work and staff after his insurer refused to offer cover for the change.

Expert Analysis

  • Water Special Administration Changes May Affect Creditors

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    Following the publication of new legislation, changes are afoot to the U.K. government's statutory regime governing special administrations for regulated water companies — and one consequence may be that some creditors of such companies will find themselves in a more uncertain position, say Helena Clarke and Charlotte Møller at Squire Patton.

  • Opinion

    Labour Should Reconsider Its Discrimination Law Plans

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    While the Labour Party's recent proposals allowing equal pay claims based on ethnicity and disability, and introducing dual discrimination, have laudable intentions and bring some advantages, they are not the right path forward as the changes complicate the discrimination claim process for employees, say Colin Leckey and Tarun Tawakley at Lewis Silkin.

  • Tracing The History Of LGBTQ+ Rights In The Workplace

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    Pride History month is a timely reminder of how recent developments have shaped LGBTQ+ employees' rights in the workplace today, and what employers can do to ensure that employees are protected from discrimination, including creating safe workplace cultures and promoting allyship, say Caitlin Farrar and Jessica Bennett at Farrer.

  • Ruling In FCA Case Offers Tips On Flexible Work Requests

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    In Wilson v. Financial Conduct Authority, the Employment Tribunal recently found that the regulator's rejection of a remote work request was justified, highlighting for employers factors that affect flexible work request outcomes, while emphasizing that individual inquiries should be considered on the specific facts, say Frances Rollin, Ella Tunnell and Kerry Garcia at Stevens & Bolton.

  • Breaking Down The New UK Pension Funding Regs

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    Recently published U.K. pension regulations, proposing major changes to funding and investing in defined benefit pension schemes, raise implementation considerations for trustees, including the importance of the employer covenant, say Charles Magoffin and Elizabeth Bullock at Freshfields.

  • Pension Scheme Ruling Elucidates Conversion Issues

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    In Newell Trustees v. Newell Rubbermaid UK Services, the High Court recently upheld a pension plan's conversion of final salary benefits to money purchase benefits, a welcome conclusion that considered several notable issues, such as how to construe pension deeds and when contracts made outside scheme rules can determine benefits, say Ian Gordon and Jamie Barnett at Gowling.

  • Workplace Bullying Bill Implications For Employers And Execs

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    In light of the upcoming parliamentary debate on the Bullying and Respect at Work Bill, organizations should consider how a statutory definition of "workplace bullying" could increase employee complaints and how senior executives would be implicated if the bill becomes law, says Sophie Rothwell at Charles Russell.

  • Amazon's €32M Data Protection Fine Acts As Employer Caveat

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    The recent decision by French data privacy regulator CNIL to fine Amazon for excessive surveillance of its workers opens up a raft of potential employment law, data protection and breach of contract issues, and offers a clear warning that companies need coherent justification for monitoring employees, say Robert Smedley and William Richmond-Coggan at Freeths.

  • Employers Can 'Waive' Goodbye To Unknown Future Claims

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    The Scottish Court of Session's recent decision in Bathgate v. Technip Singapore, holding that unknown future claims in a qualifying settlement agreement can be waived, offers employers the possibility of achieving a clean break when terminating employees and provides practitioners with much-needed guidance on how future cases might be dealt with in court, says Natasha Nichols at Farrer & Co.

  • Why Investment In Battery Supply Chain Is Important For UK

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    The recently published U.K. battery strategy sets out the government’s vision for a globally competitive battery supply chain, and it is critical that the U.K. secures investment to maximize opportunities for economic prosperity and net-zero transition, say lawyers at Watson Farley & Williams.

  • Ruling Elucidates Tensions In Assessing Employee Disability

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    An employment tribunal's recent decision, maintaining that dermatitis was not a disability, but stress was, illustrates tensions in the interaction between statutory guidance on reasonable behavior modifications and Equality Act measures, says Suzanne Nulty at Weightmans.

  • ECJ Ruling Triggers Reconsiderations Of Using AI In Hiring

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    A recent European Court of Justice ruling, clarifying that the General Data Protection Regulation could apply to decisions made by artificial intelligence, serves as a warning to employers, as the use of AI in recruitment may lead to more discrimination claims, say Dino Wilkinson and James Major at Clyde & Co.

  • Supreme Court Ruling Is A Gift To Insolvency Practitioners

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    As corporate criminal liability is in sharp focus, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Palmer v. Northern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court that administrators are not company officers and should not be held liable under U.K. labor law is instructive in focusing on the substance and not merely the title of a person's role within a company, say lawyers at Greenberg Traurig.

  • More Remains To Be Done To Achieve Gender Parity In Law

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    Significant strides have been made over the years to improve gender diversity in the legal profession, but the pay gap, lack of workplace flexibility and uneven child care burden remain significant challenges to progress, says Caroline Green at Browne Jacobson.

  • Key Employer Lessons From 2023 Neurodiversity Case Uptick

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    The rise in neurodiversity cases in U.K. employment tribunals last year emphasizes the growing need for robust occupational health support, and that employers must acknowledge and adjust for individuals with disabilities in their workplaces to ensure compliance and foster a neurodiverse-friendly work environment, says Emily Cox at Womble Bond.

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