Access Case Set for Further Hearing
There is a presumption in law that where a property adjoins a highway, the landowner owns the soil up to the middle of the highway unless it can be shown that this is clearly not intended to be the case…
Restrictive covenants in employment contracts
Two recent High Court decisions underline the importance for businesses of reviewing the restrictive covenants in an employee's contract when they are promoted and making sure the employee signs and returns the new contract. In the first case, the employee's…
No Compensation for Woman Who Volunteered for Dangerous Activity
The Court of Appeal has rejected a claim for damages by a woman climber who was injured when a stunt being filmed for a television production went wrong. The woman was on a climbing expedition in Ecuador during which she…
Unfair Dismissal and Human Rights
In an important test case, the Court of Appeal has been asked to decide whether the test of ‘proportionality’ laid down by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should be applied to unfair dismissal cases (Turner v East Midlands…
Unsigned Employment Contract Still Valid
An employment contract which was retained and not signed by the relevant worker remains valid for the purposes of enforcing restrictive covenants contained within it, a High Court judge has ruled. Benefits received by the worker under the terms of…
Domestic Workers and the Minimum Wage
The Court of Appeal has urged employment tribunals to ensure that an exception to National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation, designed to benefit both employers and workers, is not exploited as a device to obtain cheap domestic labour. The court was…
Court of Appeal Rules on Definition of Worker
The level of protection afforded to those who carry out work for someone else is not provided on a uniform basis. Some employment rights are conferred only on employees, whereas other rights are available to a wider category of workers,…
Employment Tribunal Fees
Currently, bringing an employment tribunal (ET) claim is free of charge. However, the cost of running the ET service is £84 million per annum. Earlier this year, as part of the Government’s Employment Law Review programme, the Ministry of Justice…
TUPE: What is an Organised Grouping?
A service provision change under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) takes place when, immediately before the transfer, there is an ‘organised grouping of employees’ situated in Great Britain which has as its principal purpose the…
Redundancy selection pools
Businesses will welcome an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) finding that, in some straightforward redundancy situations, where a decision is made to eliminate a single role, it may be reasonable for an employer not to consider establishing a selection pool. In…