What happens if I dismiss an employee just before they reach 2 years service?

Whilst certain claims do not require a qualifying period of service, such as discrimination claims, certain claims, such as Unfair Dismissal, do. As you may be aware already, as a basic rule, in order to make an Unfair Dismissal claim, an Employee needs to have a minimum of two years service. But what happens if the dismissal takes place just before the 2 year anniversary without notice? Once an employee has been continuously employed for one month, they are entitled to receive a minimum period of notice from their employer- this is known as a statutory minimum notice period. The…

Read more ...

Gender Pay Gap reporting – latest figures

A new report conducted by the BBC has shown that 4 in 10 private companies that have published their latest gender pay gap are reporting wider gaps than they did last year. The BBC considered the ‘median pay gap’ - that is the difference in pay between the middle-ranking woman and the middle-ranking man. This is different to unequal pay - paying women less than men for the same work – this is illegal, and if this occurs an Equal pay claim can be made. Ahead of the 4 April deadline for the gender pay gap reporting, those companies that…

Read more ...

Consultation on extending redundancy protection for women and new parents

On 25 January 2019, the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a consultation document titled Pregnancy and maternity discrimination: extending redundancy protection for women and new parents. This consultation was in response to recent independent reports which showed that 77% of women reported negative experiences at work related to their pregnancy or maternity and that the number of expectant and new mothers forced to leave their jobs had almost doubled since 2005. Extension of redundancy protection to new mothers The report proposes that the best way to offer further protection for new and expectant mothers is to…

Read more ...

ASDA Equal Pay Appeal

Asda has lost its case in the Court of Appeal in the latest development in a long-running legal dispute with staff over equal pay. The decision means that lower paid shop staff, who are mostly women, can compare themselves with higher paid warehouse workers, who are mostly men. Equal Pay – the principles Under the Equality Act 2010, men and women should receive equal pay for equal work. Work is considered equal if it is "like work", "work rated as equivalent" and "work of equal value" The law achieves this by implying a "sex equality clause" into a woman's contract…

Read more ...

Moral harassment – in the workplace?

We recently came across the term ‘moral harassment’ and researched whether such a term has a legal basis in the UK. Currently, there does not appear to be any legal provisions to define moral harassment under UK law. However, during our research, we noted that there were a few similarities between moral harassment and the UK’s laws on harassment, so we thought it would be a good idea to share our expert knowledge in this area. Under the law of England and Wales: A one-off incident can amount to harassment: the victim need not have made the perpetrator aware…

Read more ...