Employment

ECHR confirms that employers do not have green light to monitor employee emails

7 September 2017 / employee monitoring / Employment

Further to our Be Aware post of 1 February 2016 on 5 September 2017 the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights overturned the Lower Chamber’s judgment in Barbulescu v Romania and held the dismissal of an employee after his employer monitored his Yahoo Messenger communications and discovered that he had used the […]

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Brexit: Update on future rights of EU citizens in the UK

6 September 2017 / Brexit, EU nationals, immigration / Brexit, Employment

In an update to our Be Aware article of 12 July 2017, Government publishes proposals for EU nationals, the UK and the EU have just concluded the latest round of their Brexit negotiations which will be of interest to employers who are monitoring developments as part of a communications strategy for keeping EU nationals in

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Government publishes Statement of Intent on proposals for new data protection laws

9 August 2017 / data protection / Employment

On 7 August 2017, Government publishes its Statement of Intent (SoI) on ‘A new Data Protection Bill: Our planned reforms’. The SoI states that implementation of the GDPR and repeal of the Data Protection Act (DPA) will be done in a way that so far as possible preserves the concepts of the DPA to ensure

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Holiday pay must include payment for any voluntary overtime normally worked

3 August 2017 / holiday, holiday pay, working time / Employment

In the latest instalment to the litigation surrounding the correct calculation of holiday pay, the EAT has held that payment for voluntary overtime that is normally worked is within the concept of ‘normal remuneration’ and should therefore be taken into account in calculating holiday pay for the 4 weeks of holiday provided for by the

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Supreme Court ends employment tribunal fees with immediate effect

26 July 2017 / discrimination, employment tribunals / Employment

Employment tribunal fees were introduced for the first time in July 2013, and have been subject to challenge ever since. Over the course of the last 4 years, UNISON has launched two judicial reviews, both of which were unsuccessful in the High Court. In 2015, UNISON’s appeal to the Court of Appeal failed. Leave to

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Government publishes proposals for EU nationals

12 July 2017 / Brexit, EU nationals / Brexit, Employment

After many months of speculation about the Government’s proposals for European nationals[1] currently living and working in the UK, the Government has now published its Policy Paper setting out its plans. This is welcome news to employers employing European nationals in their workforce. Whilst the terms of the Policy Paper are still, of course, subject

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Taylor Review report into employment practices in the modern economy published

12 July 2017 / employment law reforms, employment status / Employment

The Taylor Review’s final report on employment practices in the modern economy has been delivered to Government and published on 11 July 2017. The Review panel, chaired by Matthew Taylor, has made a number of recommendations for specific measures which the Review panel would like to see enacted as soon as possible, but also makes

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Queen’s Speech unveils employment law changes

21 June 2017 / employment law reforms / Brexit, Employment, Reform

Today the Queen unveiled the Government’s legislative programme for the new two-year Parliament. This included a number of employment law reforms, aside from the impact of Brexit: There will be a new national policy on immigration. However, there is currently very little detail about what the new policy will be. The Conservative party manifesto included

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How to prepare for GDPR: Implementing a compliance programme

25 May 2017 / data protection / Employment

In the latest in our series of briefings on preparing for GDPR, we focus on the steps necessary to implement a GDPR compliance programme. With only one year to go until GDPR comes into force on 25 May 2018, it is vital that organisations take action now to ensure that they are ready to comply

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Practical impacts of GDPR on the employment relationship

10 May 2017 / data protection / Employment

In the next of our series of briefings on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we focus on some more of the practical impacts of GDPR on the employment relationship and what businesses can do to manage these and prepare for implementation by May 2018. Data subject access requests Under the GDPR, employees will have

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Preparing for the GDPR: New employee data subject rights could disrupt core HR procedures

18 April 2017 / data protection / Employment

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), due to come into force throughout the EU including the UK on 25 May 2018, will force through a culture change in terms of attitudes to data privacy, according to the Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham. Speaking at the Data Protection Practitioners’ Conference 2017, Denham warned that organisations risking damaging

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The clock is now ticking for employers to publish their gender pay gaps

5 April 2017 / gender pay / Employment

Today marks the beginning of the one year gender pay gap reporting countdown for every employer with 250 or more employees. Within the next 12 months, each of these employers will have to wrestle with the Government’s new complex regulations, get to grips with the various calculations, and finally publish details of their gender pay

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Gender pay gap reporting: The issues with bonuses

29 March 2017 / gender pay / Employment

One week from today, 5 April 2017, marks the ‘snapshot’ date on which employers who are in scope need to collect the raw data on which to calculate their mean and median gender pay and bonus gaps under the Equality Act (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. We continue our countdown with a brief look

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Gender pay gap reporting: what counts as ‘pay’?

22 March 2017 / employee pay and benefits, gender pay / Employment

Two weeks from today, 5 April 2017, marks the ‘snapshot’ date for which employers who are in scope need to collect the raw data on which to calculate their mean and median gender pay and bonus gaps. Employers will be required to publish information on their gender pay gap by 4 April 2018. The requirement

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Scope for ban on Islamic headscarves in the workplace remains limited

16 March 2017 / discrimination, ECJ / Employment

The European Court of Justice has decided that an internal rule which prohibits the visible wearing of any religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination based on religion or belief. Although such a rule might constitute indirect discrimination, it may be objectively justified. Facts Ms Achbita (A) was employed, in Belgium, as a receptionist by

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Be Aware UK

News and views from DLA Piper's Employment team