Employment UK

  • October 18, 2024

    Gowling Steers Engineering Biz On £70M Aviva Pension Deal

    Gowling WLG has guided the trustee of the pension plan of Rotork, a U.K. manufacturer of industrial valves, on a £70 million ($91.3 million) buy-in transaction with Aviva, meaning the company's scheme is now fully insured.

  • October 18, 2024

    FCA's 'Pension Value' Rules Criticized for Over-Simplification

    The Financial Conduct Authority's proposed regime for assessing the value of pension plans through standardized measures risks overlooking the "unique characteristics" of retirement savings plans in Britian, a financial consultancy warned on Friday.

  • October 17, 2024

    Ofsted Says Firing Inspector For Child Head Brush Was Fair

    The English education and childcare regulator argued at a London appellate court Thursday that it was entitled to dismiss a school inspector for brushing rain from a student's forehead, arguing that it should be allowed to expect "exemplary" behavior from its inspectors.

  • October 17, 2024

    We Are In The Dark Over New Workers' Laws, Employers Say

    Over a third of employers feel in the dark about changes to workers' laws contained in the government's Employment Rights Bill, according to poll results released Thursday.

  • October 17, 2024

    Bailiff Loses Claim Over Emotional Support Dog

    The Ministry of Justice was not obligated to let a court bailiff travel with her Yorkshire terrier, as an employment tribunal ruled that her anxiety levels on the job wouldn't have improved with an emotional support dog.

  • October 17, 2024

    Ex-Exec Calls Training Co.'s Libel Claim 'Corporate Bullying'

    The former sales director of an apprenticeship provider has argued that a libel claim against him is "an abuse of the legal system," after his former employer accused him of harassing senior staff in anonymous messages.

  • October 17, 2024

    Tesco Wrongly Fired Union Rep For Colleagues' Protest

    A Tesco union representative who acted as a middleman between managers and colleagues who had walked out in protest was unfairly sacked, after a tribunal found the supermarket giant wrongly regarded him as the orchestrator of the action.

  • October 17, 2024

    Pensions Watchdog To Extend Professional Trustee Oversight

    Britain's retirement savings watchdog has confirmed that it will extend its regulatory approach with professional trustee firms amid significant growth in the sector.

  • October 17, 2024

    E.On Skirts Payout Despite Unfairly Firing Staff After Accident

    A tribunal has ruled that energy utilities supplier E.On unfairly axed two technicians after an accident while repairing a streetlight nearly left one of them dead — but the pair won no compensation due to their "negligent" conduct.

  • October 16, 2024

    EAT Criticizes Tribunal's Lack Of Clarity In Decision

    A community officer revived his claim that he was fired for blowing the whistle on a housing provider's discriminatory practices after an appellate tribunal found that he deserved a proper explanation for losing.

  • October 16, 2024

    Fresh Warnings Issued Over FCA Value-For-Money Rules

    The Financial Conduct Authority's proposed new assessment of pension schemes' value is so complex it risks failing savers, trade body the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association has warned.

  • October 16, 2024

    Amazon Must Face Appeal In Whistleblower's Dismissal Case

    A former Amazon worker won an opportunity on Wednesday to overturn the dismissal of his claim for whistleblowing and disability discrimination against the global technology company as a London appellate judge ruled that the lower tribunal might have made a legal error.

  • October 16, 2024

    Actors Win Worker Status For Claims Against Theater Biz

    Two actors have won permission to sue a theatrical productions company under U.K. employment laws after they convinced a tribunal that they held worker status while on tour.

  • October 16, 2024

    Research Group Accuses Ex-Employee Of Copying Test Plan

    A health research group has accused a former senior research scientist for the company of "slavishly" copying its plans for a psychometric test, alleging that she duplicated her former employer's research in work for her new employer.

  • October 16, 2024

    BBC Beats Announcer's Bias Claim Over Probe Into TV Error

    The BBC did not discriminate against a disabled program announcer by disciplining her after she made a broadcasting error, a tribunal held in a ruling released on Wednesday.

  • October 15, 2024

    Admin Dismissed For Being Pregnant, Tribunal Says

    An employment tribunal has ordered a lifting equipment company to pay its former administrative assistant £21,300 ($27,900) for dismissing her two days after she formally told her employer she was pregnant.

  • October 15, 2024

    Disabled Court Worker Wins £48K Over Early Start Time

    An employment tribunal has ruled that a charity discriminated against a court worker by refusing to acknowledge that her anxiety made her disabled and failing to push back her working hours by 30 minutes.

  • October 15, 2024

    Trustees Urged To Do More Than Minimum On ESG

    Trustees of retirement saving schemes should do more than just what's required to comply with ESG duties, The Pensions Regulator's climate change lead said.

  • October 15, 2024

    Royal Mail OK To Ax Disabled Staffer Who Could Not Do Job

    Royal Mail did not discriminate against a former postal worker when it dismissed him after his chronic pain condition left him unable to fulfill his duties, a tribunal has ruled.

  • October 15, 2024

    Ex-Premier Leaguer Fights Man City For £11M After Arrest

    The private life of Benjamin Mendy "is not on trial," his counsel told a tribunal Tuesday as the former Premier League player fights to force Manchester City to pay him £11 million ($14.4 million) the club withheld after his arrest on rape charges.

  • October 14, 2024

    RAF Officer Can't Challenge Military Complaints Process

    The Ministry of Defence won its bid on Monday to block claims by a squadron leader that it mishandled her sex discrimination and harassment allegations, after an appellate judge ruled that employment tribunals could not hear a challenge to the military's internal complaints process.

  • October 14, 2024

    Ex-Director Hits Back At Simply Natural 'Hostile' TM Claim

    A former director of Simply Naturals has denied signing a deal that transferred trademarks he owned for "Sizzling Minerals" over to the vitamin company, claiming that he is the target of a "hostile campaign" waged by two of its current directors.

  • October 14, 2024

    Eye Doc Can't Claim Whistleblowing Led To Unfair Treatment

    An employment tribunal has dismissed an orthoptist's claims that a hospital treated her unfairly after she raised concerns about poor care of patients, because the information she revealed did not amount to whistleblowing.

  • October 14, 2024

    Employee Sacked Over Alleged Aggressive Email Wins Claim

    An administrative manager at a one-on-one education service has won almost £10,000 ($13,000) after a tribunal found that her boss did not follow protocol to fire her after she sent an allegedly aggressive and intimidating email to a colleague.

  • October 14, 2024

    New Sexual Harassment Law To Alter Work Safety For Good

    Employers must assess the risk that staff will be sexually harassed and ensure they have preventative policies and procedures in place as they prepare for an incoming duty which, lawyers say, will be a watershed in workplace health and safety provision.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    UK Whistleblowers Flock To The US For Good Reason

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    The U.K. Serious Fraud Office director recently brought renewed attention to the differences between the U.K. and U.S. whistleblower regimes — differences that may make reporting to U.S. agencies a better and safer option for U.K. whistleblowers, and show why U.K. whistleblower laws need to be improved, say Benjamin Calitri and Kate Reeves at Kohn Kohn.

  • No-Poach Agreements Face Greater EU Antitrust Scrutiny

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    EU competition authorities are increasingly viewing employer no-poach agreements as anti-competitive and an enforcement priority, demonstrating that such provisions are no longer without risk in Europe, and proving the importance of understanding EU antitrust law concerns and implications, says Robert Hardy at Greenberg Traurig.

  • 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.

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