Articles by ‘Malcolm Gregory’

The labour market is competitive with employers seeking to offer the best benefits package they can to attract talent. In some cases problems arise where there is confusion about whether or not a particular benefit forms part of an employee’s contract.

In Amdocs Systems Group Ltd v Langton, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) highlighted the risks for employers of having contractual benefits which are underpinned by an insurance policy.

According to a recent survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), there has been a 7% rise in incidents of violence and abuse against shop workers compared to the previous year.

Prior to March 2020 the term ‘furlough’ was little understood. Over the last 18 months it has become a well known device used to save thousands of employees from losing their jobs.

Another casualty of the pandemic is the employment tribunal system, according to the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA).

A senior employee was awarded more than £2.5m after the Employment Tribunal decided that his employer conducted a ‘sham” investigation and “dressed up” issues as a breakdown of trust and confidence to dismiss the employee, who had been behaving erratically due to cancer.

Wednesday’s Budget brings a further extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, better known as furlough, which is now set to run until the end of September 2021.

On 31 December 2020, the Brexit implementation period came to an end. Just a few days before it did so, the UK reached a new trade agreement with the EU.

As a consequence, although the ECJ will no longer have jurisdiction to deal with employment law disputes in the UK, there are provisions in the trade agreement which require the UK to maintain a level playing field with the EU and not allow employment rights to be weaker after Brexit.

A significant proportion of UK employment law comes from the EU. A number of worker protections, such as rules around discrimination rights, collective consultation obligations and duties to agency workers have been incorporated into UK law.

With the UK now having officially withdrawn from the European Union and no longer being subject to the supremacy of EU Law, a number of news institutions reported last week on supposed government plans to shake-up workers’ rights.

Following this week’s announcement of the most recent lockdown, employers and workers alike have raised important questions around the practical implications of the school closures. Our Employment & HR team explore the most pertinent issues.

The Government has updated its guidance for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). Most of it remains unchanged but the update does provide some important clarifications about the elements of the scheme which might change in forthcoming months.

The Government has announced today that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), otherwise known as the furlough scheme, will be extended until the end of March 2021.