[skip to content]

Restructuring and Redundancies News

13 July 2011

Holiday and sickness absence - the next chapter

Following the recent Stringer case, which decided that workers on sick leave continue to accrue their statutory holiday, it seems that uncertainty concerning the relationship between holiday rights and long-term sick leave has not just been causing headaches for British employers.

06 July 2011

Can you control pay rises after a TUPE transfer?

A recent decision of the Supreme Court on the interpretation of the TUPE regulations may lead to important implications for any employer involved in outsourcing, particularly from the public sector. 

28 March 2011

The 2011 Budget - Employment measures

The 2011 Budget and the Government's accompanying "Plan for Growth" contain a number of employment-related measures.

28 March 2011

Termination Payments

The tax position for post-P45 payments to former employees is changing from 6 April.  Under the new rules, it may not be possible to deduct basic rate tax only from payments to former employees.  This will affect some payments made under compromise agreements that are entered into before that date.

21 February 2011

Changes to the UK Business Immigration System

The government has published its proposed changes to Tier 2 of the points-based immigration scheme. In addition to the imminent closure of parts of Tier 1, these changes, which are expected to come into force on 6 April 2011, will make it harder for businesses to employ overseas nationals in the UK.

21 February 2011

Time off for Training

The Government has announced that it will not extend the right to request time off for training to all employees in April 2011.

31 January 2011

Resolving Workplace Disputes

As part of its comprehensive review of employment laws, the Government has issued a consultation document "Resolving Workplace Disputes".

14 January 2011

Removal of the Default Retirement Age

The Government has confirmed that the Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65 is to be abolished.  From October 2011, employers will not be able to retire employees as a matter of course when they reach 65.

16 December 2010

Cabinet Office scraps central government "Two-Tier Code"

The Cabinet Office has announced the immediate scrapping of the 2005 Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in Public Sector Service Contracts (commonly referred to as the "Two-Tier Code").

16 December 2010

New rates announced

It has been announced that the new maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £65,300 to £68,400.

03 December 2010

Agency workers and their status

If you use agency workers, you will be pleased to hear that a recent decision of the Court of Appeal should make it harder for agency workers to argue that they are employees of the end-user of the services.                                                                     

20 October 2010

Equality Act Codes of Practice

The three Equality Act Codes of Practice have now been published and were laid before Parliament on 12 October 2010.

29 July 2010

Government to scrap the default retirement age

The Government today announced its plans to abolish the default retirement age.

27 March 2009

Increase to statutory holiday entitlement

1 April will see the minimum entitlement of paid statutory holiday increase from 4.8 weeks to 5.6 weeks (28 days for someone working a 5 day week).

26 March 2009

Extension of the right to request flexible working

A reminder that from 6 April 2009, parents/carers with children under 17 will be entitled to request to work flexibly. Previously this right was only available to those with children under 6. Other provisions remain unchanged.

25 March 2009

New ACAS Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance

The new Code comes into effect on 6 April replacing the well-intended, but ultimately unsuccessful, statutory dispute resolution procedures.

06 March 2009

ECJ decision on retirement age

Those of you with razor sharp memories will recall that we have been waiting, for some time now, for the ECJ to pronounce on whether or not the UK's default retirement age of 65 is lawful. Yesterday the ECJ handed down their decision.