According to Tribunal Services' statistics for 2008/2009, claims for unfair dismissal, breach of contract, redundancy pay and failure to inform and consult in redundancy were all up on the previous years’ figures.  In total, 151,000 claims were...

Agents : Workers in Disguise? Can a Commercial Agent also be a worker? A Commercial Agent is “a self employed intermediary who has continuing authority to negotiate the sale or purchase of goods on behalf of his Principal or to negotiate conclude...

With the festive season and New Year fast approaching, employers will no doubt be considering a plethora of holiday requests from their employees. It is essential therefore that, to avoid any claims under the Working Time Regulations, contracts of...

As autumn moves into winter and the clocks go back it is the time that we all start to think about new year plans and the “to do” list for 2010. Here are our top tips on being prepared for the most recent changes that have taken place affecting...

Many thanks to all of you who completed our outsourcing survey in the last edition of HR law. The results have shown that outsourcing is a hot topic, with three quarters of the organisations having outsourced a function in the last twelve months or are...

Staff absenteeism has increased markedly over the past few months, with a recent survey by FirstCare reporting that it is running at 66% higher than normal. Below are our top tips to help employers cope with some of the issues which are likely to crop-up...

Protecting your valuable IP assets There is a constant stream of cases involving intellectual property rights (IP) and employment. In this article, we look at some recent issues. Ownership of contacts A company’s database of...

  Maybe not with the current swine flu situation in Mexico. However, the holiday season is fast approaching and with it the headaches that it can throw up for those left holding the fort in HR. So, here are our top tips on dealing with them....

Top tips on managing the relationship between employer and with employee representatives In the current climate, many of HR professionals are dealing with employee representatives as part of redundancy consultation exercises. Typically this will...

Many employers are this year facing the prospect of redundancies to a scale they have never previously required and in an environment in which the cash to pay more than the statutory minimum is tight yet their redundant employees have little prospect of...