Holiday entitlement is important to individuals. Where and when one spends much deserved rest and recovery often takes months of thoughtful planning. A worker who believes they have not been given the correct holiday leave or pay will feel aggrieved. Once again, the long-running saga of how to deal with holiday leave entitlement for those […]
One area of employment law that has seen little statutory change in 2013 is discrimination. This is perhaps unsurprising as extensive revision and consolidation took place in 2010 with the Equality Act. Although it’s only three years old, even the Equality Act has not been without some legislative revision. Section 40(2) of the Equality Act […]
On 8 March 2013, the amount of unpaid parental leave that can be taken per parent, per child, increased from 13 to 18 weeks. This change came into force this year as required by the underlying European Directive. It remains the case that the leave can be taken any time before a child’s fifth birthday… […]
The controversial concept of ‘employee shareholder’ employment status was a hotly fought point in the game of ‘ping pong’ between the House of Commons and the House of Lords during the passage of the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013. Ultimately, the government-backed provision made its way onto the statute books and came into force on […]
Does the fact that a person is obese mean they are, or could be, ‘disabled’ for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010? If their obesity affects their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, should they be protected from discrimination because they are overweight? Earlier this year, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered this […]
Both the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) and the Agency Workers Directive refer to an agency worker as someone ‘supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily’. However, in both cases there is no definition of ‘temporary’. In Moran and others v Ideal Cleaning Services Ltd, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that the AWR […]
This year the Court of Appeal confirmed in Lockwood v Department for Work & Pensions that differences in severance payments on voluntary redundancy between older and younger workers could be objectively justified and was not unlawful age discrimination. The enhanced payment to older workers was found to be a legitimate way of providing a financial […]
Eversheds has elected Paul Smith, a partner and environmental lawyer and litigator at Eversheds, for a four-year term as chairman beginning on 1 May 2014. Smith has defended a number of multinational companies over the years in relation to criminal investigations in the UK, Europe and North America. He is a recognised expert on law firm […]
The 2009 Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures (the 2009 Code) is intended to provide practical guidance to carrying out fair disciplinary procedures for misconduct or poor performance fairly. The employment tribunal must take the 2009 Code into account when considering whether the employer or employee acted reasonably and can adjust the […]
Conyers Dill & Pearman has provided Cayman Islands advice to Cayman Hotel Holdings, a subsidiary of Five Mile Capital Partners (FMC), pertaining to the $130m (£80m) refinancing of the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman property. FMC is an alternative investment and asset management company that specialises in investment opportunities in real estate, debt products, structured finance, asset-based […]
Office design and ways of working evolve continuously and it can be a full time job keeping pace with new ways to inspire, motivate and retain staff. There is however always room for improvement and being aware of the key trends can help you make decisions that will benefit you. Here we outline some of […]
The Intellectual Property Bill (the draft bill) has been working its way through Parliament throughout the summer and autumn and is likely to be enacted in 2014. Arguably, the most eye-catching of the draft bill’s provisions concern patents, in particular the new powers to enable the UK to implement the Unified Patent Court Agreement, but […]