The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill has now received Royal Assent. One of the more important changes for industry is that creative designs which are used in an industrial process will be protected for the life of the creator plus…
A recent Court of Appeal judgment, dealing with a situation where a party has suspended or delayed compliance with its contractual obligations, is likely to be of interest to many businesses. The economic downturn has made this scenario increasingly common…
The ECJ has ruled that an employer's redundancy selection exercise must not discriminate against workers who have taken parental leave. In this case, the employer used selection criteria from a recent appraisal process, which the employee had not participated in…
A new system has come into force which relaxes the rules regarding the disclosure of past convictions and cautions when checks are carried out on job applicants by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) – formerly the Criminal Records Bureau…
Under the Equality Act 2010, a person is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. In Wheeldon v Marstons plc, at…
In shedding light on the correct approach to cases where evidence of misconduct is uncovered subsequent to dismissal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that it was open to an employment tribunal (ET) to find that a fair dismissal…
A businessman was left rueing the trust he had placed in a long-standing employee and wishing that he had done more to protect his commercial data after the disloyal worker loaded his stationery company’s entire Sage accounting database onto a…
Advances in technology, resulting from digitalisation of communications, have now made it possible for businesses to utilise small spaces in property for commercial purposes. The High Court has recently held that a tenant, which had taken a lease for 43…
When a woman who was injured in an accident at work and who seemed to be making a good recovery collapsed and died three weeks later, as a result of a deep-vein thrombosis and a pulmonary embolism which were related…
The Government has announced the rates of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) that will apply for 2013/2014. The following changes will come into effect on 1 October 2013: The adult NMW rate will increase from £6.19 to £6.31 per hour;…
