News Archive

September 2012 – Blue Sky HR service launched.....

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Winning work – important new cases under TUPE

18 May 2012

You have won a valuable contract with a client and look forward now to being inundated with work. However, you are then notified that there are a whole group of employees from the outgoing supplier who are to come knocking on your door – you are told that under the TUPE regulations you must employ them. Not only that, but you must employ them on their existing terms and conditions of employment, you cannot change their contractual terms and if you refuse to take them on you will be at risk of a whole host on unfair dismissal claims.

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Marriage and work – A dangerous combination?

16 January 2012

A recent case has thrust the thorny issue of relationships at work back into the spotlight.

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Employment References – Helpful case for Employers...but still a minefield!

16 January 2012

You have an employee who has left and moved on elsewhere. You provided a short and quite favourable employment reference. However, his files have now been looked at closely and it has been discovered that his record keeping was not the best – there are lots of errors and he has stated jobs have been completed when they were not. You now receive a more detailed reference request from the new employer containing specific questions – What was the reason for leaving? Were there any weaknesses? Were you under a duty to answer these questions?

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Holidays during sick leave - the latest

11th November 2011

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in the case of Fraser v South West London St George's Mental Health Trust UKEAT/0456/10 have clarified unresolved issues in this long running saga.

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Does your business use agency workers or temps, supplied by an employment agency?

30th September 2011

The Agency Worker Regulations (“AWR”) are due to come into force on 1 October 2011.

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HR Matters - Fitter, Leaner..... (but not meaner)

2nd September 2011

Blue Sky Law teamed up with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce on 13th September to deliver an innovative breakfast seminar entitled “Fitter, Leaner, but not meaner” - focussing on the HR and employment law aspects of becoming leaner as a business - and ways to both avoid redundancies and also to deal fairly with them when they become necessary.

Click here to download our presentation.

Click here to download our flyer.

About Blue Sky Law

Lee Jefcott is Head of Employment at specialist law firm Blue Sky Law. He has over 10 years experience in advising business and individuals on employment law issues. He represents clients at Employment Tribunals throughout the UK.

Lee is often asked to comment in the media on employment law developments. He also writes for specialist publications such as Personnel Today and is a freelance lecturer at BPP Law School.

Can’t work...won’t work...but entitled to pay?

17th June 2011

Ash clouds, security situations, snow....(in June?)...

There seems to be an increasing number of impediments to attending at work these days. .... but if my employee genuinely can’t get to work do I have to pay him or her?

This issue was thrown sharply into focus in the recent case of Burns v Santander UK PLC. A bank branch manager was arrested and charged with 13 criminal offences. He was remanded in custody and his trial took place 6 months later. At trial he was convicted of 2 of the offences and acquitted of the remainder. He was given a suspended sentence, an order for unpaid work and a supervision order and released.

His employer did not terminate employment when he was remanded in prison. Instead they kept his job open but did not pay him. The employee later issued a legal claim for his wages.

The question of whether wages are legally due to an absent employee depends on an interpretation of the employment contract. For salaried employees the position if often not clear cut and a worker who is ready and willing to perform his contract but is unable to do so by reason of sickness, injury or other unavoidable impediment may, if the contract continues and subject to its terms, still be able to claim his wages thereunder.

In this case the Employment Appeal Tribunal grappled with the concept of “unavoidable impediment” and reached the view that being incarcerated in prison was NOT unavoidable and therefore wages were not due..... (Phew!). As with the Ash clouds, we expect that this situation has not gone away and is likely to come back at some point.....

Default Retirement age – the latest

4th April 2011

UK business is going to have to get to grips with major changes in the way that older employees are managed.....

Current age discrimination legislation states that any less favourable treatment of employees on the grounds of their age which cannot be justified is unlawful. There was a major concession to employers in that a termination of employment on the grounds of retirement at age 65 (or above) was lawful provided that certain notice requirements have been met and the employer has complied with its duty to consider any request made to work beyond normal retirement age. However, this position has now changed.

The current position

The current “default” retirement provisions have been removed. This means that employers who decide to “enforce” a retirement age, and terminate employment on the grounds of retirement will have to provide evidence of justification of such actions or face successful claims of age discrimination and unfair dismissal. This will be so even if organisations have an “accepted” retirement age and even if contracts of employment provide for retirement.