Employment Law Update January 2011

Interrupted rest breaks do not amount to 'on-call' time

In Martin v Southern health and Social Care Trust , the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal (NICA) has held that a nurse was not ‘on call’ during her rest breaks even though the employer could not guarantee that the breaks would be uninterrupted....

CBI calls for delay in change to retirement age

The Confederation of British Industry has urged the government to delay planned changes to the retirement age for a year. It warned that employers face "huge uncertainty" and a greater risk of unfair dismissal claims unless there is more legal...

Automatic pension enrolment

The government has announced it is going ahead with its predecessor’s plans for automatic pension enrolment following an independent review commissioned after the general election. The review concluded that auto-enrolment should proceed on its original...

Bonuses and pay in lieu of notice

The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision in Locke v Candy & Candy , upholding a decision that, where a bonus clause stipulated that an employee had to be "employed by the company in order to receive the bonus", he was not entitled to...

Annual compensation limit increases

From 1st February 2011, the new maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal increases to £68,400 (currently £65,300). The new maximum for a week's pay increases from £380 to £400. Thus the maximum unfair dismissal award (basic...

Q&A - Absence from work

Emergency Leave Q: What is the basic legal position when employees do not turn up for work? A: The basic law underlying these cases is that employees have no right to be paid unless they turn up for work. The fact that...

Employment Law Training

Long Term Sickness - February The Frettens Employment Team have decided to evolve their HR Forum events! We will now be offering a quarterly training session on Employment Law and HR issues. The sessions will be longer and will include a...