Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Government has started consulting on simplifying the tax element of termination payments.  The proposals are to:- Remove the distinction between contractual and non-contractual payments. Change the current £30,000 tax free sum to an amount which would increase with the length of an employee’s continuous employment. Introduce a two year qualifying period before an employee... Read the rest of this entry →

Unison has lost its Court of Appeal case, which challenged the legality of Tribunal Fees.  Whilst the Court of Appeal was concerned about the sharp decline in Employment Tribunal claims, it said that in itself that was not sufficient and there needed to be evidence of the “actual affordability of the fees in the financial... Read the rest of this entry →

In Coles –v- Ministry of Defence the EAT had to decide whether an agency worker in a temporary job should be given the right to apply for that job or alternatively to get preference ahead of permanent employees within the same organisation.  The Claimant found himself out of “his” job after a redundancy exercise by... Read the rest of this entry →

In British Waterways Board –v- Smith, the EAT had to decide whether comments made by an Employee on Facebook which he later claimed to be untrue was sufficient to amount to gross misconduct.  Mr Smith had made derogatory comments on his Facebook page about his managers and work claiming that two years earlier he had... Read the rest of this entry →

In Stephens –v- University of Birmingham the High Court had to make a decision as to whether denying an employee a choice of representative at a disciplinary hearing other than a union representative or a colleague would be sufficient to breach the implied term of trust and confidence. Mr Stephens was an academic at the... Read the rest of this entry →

In BT Managed Services Limited –v- Edwards the EAT had to decide whether an Employee who was permanently off sick could be considered to be assigned to an organised grouping of employees under a TUPE transfer.  Mr Edwards had been off work for a period exceeding 5 years, during which time he had received PHI... Read the rest of this entry →