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Work life balance: thanks to the technology that supports it

23rd December 2010

With the turn of another year, we have been reflecting on how life has changed for EmployEase over the 16 years we have been in business. When we set up EmployEase we were two single women living in London with an office in a shared workspace in King’s Cross. We had two state of the […]

Christmas party hall of fame..

17th December 2010

Despite the financial gloom, many businesses are still holding a Christmas get together with their staff. It’s a chance to celebrate this year’s successes and to look forward to next year’s challenges. So it may come as a surprise that December is a busy month for employment lawyers. Earlier this month we dealt with the […]

MEP’s plan to extend paid maternity leave to 20 weeks blocked in current form by Euro ministers

10th December 2010

On 6th December 2010, EU plans to increase paid maternity leave to 20 weeks were labelled unworkable by EU Ministers who confirmed they could not adopt this increase at a time when countries were imposing economic constraints. In the UK, women on maternity leave are entitled to 39 weeks paid maternity leave (with the remaining […]

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

29th November 2010

Despite us having at least one decent period of snow each year, are employers ready to cope with the consequences? During the snow we had at the start of this year, I negotiated a termination settlement while my client was trapped in his car on a motorway. Luckily, his mobile phone was working, frankly he […]

Repeal of the Default Retirement Age: It is coming soon!

The Government intends to repeal the default retirement age (DRA). From next year, compulsory retirement at age 65 or over can be challenged by the employee. The DRA will be repealed on 1 October next year, with transitional measures in force as early as April 2011– only five months away. Ernest Hemingway commented that retirement […]

Bank holiday on 29th April 2011: are you prepared?

26th November 2010

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011 will be marked by a public holiday across the UK. What should you do about it? A bit of history first: when the right to holiday pay was introduced by the Working Time Regulations in 1998, it mirrored the EU Working Time Directive […]

CAN THE SYSTEM CATCH UP WITH THE LIKES OF JOHN BERRY?

19th November 2010

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has just dismissed four appeals from John Berry against recruitment agencies and employers. All four Respondents had posted job adverts requesting “school leavers” or “recent Graduates”. Mr John Berry, age 54, claimed that he had been discriminated against because of his age by these adverts even though he failed to […]

Dismissal for some other substantial reason

16th November 2010

The Nottingham employment tribunal has decided that the Acas Code applies to a dismissal for some other substantial reason In April 2009, the Statutory Disciplinary Procedure was repealed and replaced by a new Acas Code on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures that affected the outcome of an unfair dismissal claim and the calculation of damages. The […]

Unfair Dismissal Qualifying Period

3rd November 2010

Lord Young agrees that the Government will consider increasing the qualifying service required for unfair dismissal to 2 years. The Government has announced a series of measures to help the 5 million small businesses in the UK. They have issued a document called Backing Small Business. It can be found at: http://www.bis.gov.uk The document sets […]

Networking and time

29th October 2010

I was invited to give a talk last night at the Edinburgh Curry Club and for various reasons which I won’t bore you with, there was a bit of a change on the topic of discussion late yesterday afternoon. Instead of my plan, I spoke about a whistle blowing case that I dealt with for […]