The Supreme Court recently handed down its much awaited Judgment in the matter of Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake. This confirmed that carers who are ‘sleep-in’ workers are not entitled to National Minimum Wage (NMW) for hours during which: they are required to sleep near to or on site; but, they are not carrying out […]

Following the recent Supreme Court Judgment in Uber and others v Aslam and others, Uber has announced that it will begin to pay its drivers the National Living Wage, pension contributions, holiday pay and other statutory payments to which ‘workers’ are entitled under UK employment law. The Claimants’ representatives have cautiously welcomed the move by […]

This week, the Government issued new guidance for those who have been shielding because they are categorised as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV). The advice to those who were told to shield was relaxed last summer. However, as a result of the number of cases rising dramatically in January 2021, the guidance for the CEV was […]

ACAS has recently published new guidance for employers concerning COVID-19. This contains advice as to the ways in which employers can both support their workforce to get tested regularly for COVID-19 and encourage them to take up the offer of a vaccination from the NHS. The guidance can be found at: Testing staff for coronavirus. […]

When defending a discrimination claim in the employment tribunal (ET), it is common for employers to rely on what is known as the ‘statutory defence’. Section 109(4) of the Equality Act 2010 (EQA) provides a defence for employers facing a claim for unlawful discrimination in the ET. This only applies where the employer is able […]

For some people, COVID-19 can cause symptoms that last weeks or months after the infection has gone. This is called post-COVID-19 syndrome or, more commonly, ‘long COVID’. Little is known about long COVID at the moment, but with increasing numbers of people suffering from this condition, we are becoming more aware of how it manifests. […]

A number of employers in England are considering introducing ‘no jab, no job’ contracts of employment for new employees in light of the number of people nationwide who are, reportedly, indicating that they will not take the coronavirus vaccine. Boris Johnson has already said that, because of lack of evidence on how effective the vaccines […]

In 2016, James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam argued in the Employment Tribunal that Uber drivers should be classed as workers (not as self-employed, contrary to Uber’s model), primarily because of the high level of control the company had over them whilst they were working. The Employment Tribunal found in the drivers’ favour and Uber appealed […]

Towards the end of last month, the Government released an excel spreadsheet showing a list of all those businesses that claimed furlough grant monies through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Scheme) from 1 December 2020 onwards. The spreadsheet only confirms the identities of those businesses that have claimed from 1 December 2020. It does not […]

In an effort to ramp up workplace testing for Covid-19, the Government has recently announced that businesses, which are open during lockdown and employ more than 50 employees, are entitled to order rapid lateral flow tests. These tests produce results within 30 minutes. Previously, only businesses with more than 250 employees qualified for this type […]