UK employment law considerations during EURO 2016

A major sporting event is not a new phenomenon. In recent years, we’ve had the Olympics, the World Cup and Wimbledon tournaments in which a British player actually has a shot at winning. As with any such event, planning ahead is a good idea and you may well have a plan based on what you did last time round. But don’t expect your staff to…

UK Trade Union Act 2016: The end of the beginning?

The Trade Union Bill last week received Royal Assent and became the Trade Union Act 2016 . The Act introduces significant reforms in relation to the holding of industrial action by trade unions. The legislation involves the most radical shake-up of strike and picketing laws since the Thatcher era despite including numerous amendments that were made in light of significant opposition in the House of Lords….

'Only dyslexics need apply' - unlawful discrimination?

A new marketing firm, the Garage, has caused controversy by publishing a job advert requesting applications from dyslexics only. The ad features Steve Jobs and states: “We are looking for talented thinkers who think differently to join us. We require people with a unique mind, so only dyslexics (like Steve) should apply.” This raises questions over the extent to which dyslexia amounts to a disability,…

Gender pay gap reporting requirements on the way

After more than 40 years of equal pay legislation in the UK, the gap between women’s and men’s pay remains stubbornly high. According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the overall pay gap, based on earnings of full-time and part-time workers, has remained at 19.2% during 2014 and 2015. This means that, on average, women earn just over 80% of what men…

EU-US Privacy Shield - is the harbor safe again, or are we entering further unchartered waters?

The EU-US data transfer framework known as “Safe Harbor” was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice (“the ECJ”) last October in the Schrems decision. Since then, US and EU authorities have been locked in negotiations to see if a deal could be reached to address the concerns raised by the ECJ when it struck down Safe Harbor. Top of the list were the…

New EU data protection regime – implications for employers

After a four-year gestation period, political agreement has finally been reached on the new EU legal regime for data protection. An “agreed in principle” text of the proposed General Data Protection Regulation has been published. The text is likely to be modified for linguistic and consistency reasons, but the rights, obligations and potential penalties have been determined. The law should be formally adopted around Easter…

Commission payments - limits on employers' discretion

A recent Court of Appeal decision has confirmed that when allocating commission employers must exercise their discretion rationally and in accordance with the terms of the relevant contractual documentation (Hills v Niksun Inc). The case concerned Mr Hills, who was employed by Niksun Inc as its UK sales manager. After a sale of security software, he was promised that he would be “looked after” in…

Restrictive covenants: no need to pay, and paying probably won’t help…

In many civil law countries – France, Germany, Spain and Italy to name but a few – it is both normal and indeed a legal necessity to pay for restrictive covenants, such as non-compete, non-solicit and non-dealing clauses, during the term for which they are in force. That has never been the case in the UK and other common law lands, where the test has…