Articles by ‘James Sage’

Our Health & Social Care team brings you an overview of the key employment law changes in 2020. The legal developments to keep on your radar are:

When managing staff sickness absence it is essential that you consider whether the worker has a disability. Failing to do so could create significant risk of a disability discrimination claim under the Equality Act 2010.

Some of our lawyers at the Care Innovation Challenge final in London. Pictured are James Sage, Nicola Radcliffe, Mei-Ling Huang and Bharti Moore with the winners, Team Orchard (Rachel Smith, Jordan Smith and Subhaan Iqbal).

Since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, we have experienced a considerable rise in the number of Subject Access Requests (SAR) made to our employer clients. Requests can be burdensome, time-consuming and costly to deal with but there are some practical ways to minimise these problems.

RWK Goodman’s Health & Social Care team are delighted to invite you to our annual employment law update which will take place in Gloucester.

Law firm RWK Goodman, a leading provider of legal services to the social care sector, has been named as founding legal partner for the Care Innovation Hub (CIH).

In this important update for care providers we will look at:

• new government guidance on how to calculate holiday pay
• Mencap sleep-in case heads to the Supreme Court
• new National Minimum Wage increases, and
• new penalty charges for “aggravated” breaches of employment rights.

The social care sector is facing a staffing crisis with an estimate shortage of half a million workers over the next decade, reports a major new study from the trade body Care Association Alliance…

2018 has brought a few changes in employment law which are directly relevant to pharmacy owners. More changes are still to come, with post-Brexit immigration system – which is expected to be unveiled this month – likely to affect workforce in the pharmacy and broader healthcare sector. Our Health & Social Care team brings you a roundup of the changes and steps you can take now to mitigate risks.

The Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) latest report makes a number of alarming recommendations for EU migration after Brexit, and if adopted by the Government will exacerbate the care sector workforce crisis.

Last month, in Royal Mencap Society-v-Tomlinson-Blake, the Court of Appeal held that ‘sleep-in’ shifts were not subject to the National Minimum Wage. The ruling, while providing welcome relief for care providers, left a few questions unanswered. One of them was how HMRC proposed to deal with providers who had joined the Social Care Compliance Scheme. HMRC has now provided further guidance, but has it brought any clarity?

In Royal Mencap Society-v-Tomlinson-Blake, the Court of Appeal held that ‘sleep-in’ are not subject to the National Minimum Wage (NMW).

Overturning a significant body of case-law, the Court of Appeal ruled that the National Minimum Wage is only payable when staff are awake and actually working, not when they are asleep and only available for work. In reaching its decision, the Court of Appeal relied heavily on reports by the Low Pay Commission to support its interpretation of the National Minimum Wage Regulations.