All Tax and legislation articles – Page 25
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OpinionLeah Caprani: The last taboo – menopause in the workplace
Members of Parliament (MPs) have called for the introduction of formal policies to protect menopausal women from being discriminated against in the workplace. While there is currently no specific legislation in this area, Davis v Scottish Courts and Tribunals Services, which was heard in February 2018, provides some welcome guidance ...
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OpinionBlair Adams and Kezia Daley: Brexit and the loss of EU nationals
Employers with European Union (EU) nationals in their workforce have a vested interest in actively helping and encouraging them to apply for settled status before 31 October 2019, in case free movement ends on that date in a no-deal Brexit scenario.EU nationals currently have two options to stay in the ...
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ArticleLabour pledges 32-hour week, end of zero hours and to tackle menopause stigma
During the 2019 Labour Party Conference, which took place from Saturday 21 to Wednesday 25 September, shadow chancellor of the exchequer John McDonnell MP (pictured) committed the party to start work implementing a 32-hour average working week, with no reductions to pay, during its next term in government.The move to ...
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ArticleGovernor of California signs bill redefining employee status
On 18 September 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that updates and amends various sections of the state's Labor Code and Unemployment Insurance Code, redefining and clarifying the classification of employees versus independent contractors, or gig workers.The bill states that, for the purposes of the provisions ...
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OpinionBoma Adoki and Melanie Shone: Major change to the UK tax regime for contractors
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is continuing its quest to ensure that individuals who work like employees pay tax like employees, even when working via a personal service company (PSC). However, it has had mixed success recently, as a number of its determinations have been overturned in the Tax Tribunal.Set ...
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OpinionLaura Hill: Are employees getting enough rest at work?
The length of both the working day and employees’ breaks are two hot topics, with several high-profile cases having come to light recently, but what should employers take away from the headlines?In 2003, Regulation 12 of the working time regulations entitled workers to an uninterrupted rest of at least 20 ...
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ArticlePoll: 33% feel Good Work Standard will lead to staff being better paid
Employee Benefits poll: A third (33%) of Employee Benefits readers believe that the Good Work Standard, an employment benchmark introduced by Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (pictured), will lead to more employees being paid the voluntary London living wage rate, currently set at £10.55 an hour.A straw poll of www.employeebenefits.co.uk ...
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OpinionDaniel Parker: LGBT employment equality - the journey so far
With a particularly significant Pride Month having taken place this June, marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, one might be forgiven for looking to the past and taking stock, with a critical eye, of decades of change for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in the ...
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ArticleThink tank proposes increases to wages and annual leave to boost UK’s productivity
Image credit: NEFBritish think tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) has proposed that minimum wages and statutory paid holiday entitlement be increased in order to improve the UK’s productivity.The Time for demand: Boosting productivity with public investment, minimum wages and paid holiday report, published in August 2019, suggested that bolstering ...
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OpinionOliver Topping: How to spot personal data breaches and when to report them
In 2018, new data protection laws brought in a requirement for data controllers, like employers and trustees of pension schemes, to make reports swiftly after certain types of personal data breaches occur.Before rushing to pick up the phone to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or emailing affected employees or pension ...
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ArticleWomen and Equalities Committee puts discrimination responsibility on employers
The Women and Equalities Committee has recommended that the emphasis for raising workplace discrimination issues should lie with employers, public authorities and service providers, rather than individual employees.The Committee published its tenth Enforcing the Equality Act: The law and the role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report on ...
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ArticleEY, London City Airport and Schroders sign up to new Good Work Standard
Professional services organisation EY, London City Airport and asset wealth firm Schroders are among the employers that have signed the Good Work Standard, a new benchmark that recognises businesses for implementing and maintaining high employment standards, such as paying staff at least the voluntary London living wage.The Good Work Standard ...
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ArticleNearly two million UK employees do not receive their minimum paid leave entitlement
Nearly two million (1.96 million) UK employees do not receive the minimum entitlement of paid annual leave, according to research conducted by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).The analysis, based on the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Labour force survey data for quarter four of 2018, also found that 1.145 million ...
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ArticleBEIS to consult on workplace protections and flexible working, following Good work plan
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched a consultation on workplace protections, aiming to tackle the issues identified in its Good work plan report, published in December 2018, including the introduction of a single labour market enforcement body.The consultation, which launched on Tuesday 16 July 2019 ...
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OpinionRuth Christy: Changes to the statement of employment particulars
Some of the finer details of the new rules for written statements of employment particulars have gone under the radar.Under the Good Work Plan, published in December 2018, from 6 April 2020 every new employee and worker will have the right to the current statement of written particulars from day ...
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OpinionLindsey Hunt: Can an employer ban working from home?
In March 2019, city bank BNY Mellon came under fire for announcing it was putting a stop to working from home. Its employees vented that this was a huge step backwards, with issues such as mental health and childcare among the key concerns. The backlash led to the bank retracting ...
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ArticleEuropean court rules that member states must measure employees’ working time
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that European Union (EU) member states must require employers to measure the duration of time worked by each employee, both normal hours and overtime, to ensure staff are not working beyond the legal maximum number of hours, and that ...
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OpinionKaren Holden: Tackling harassment of LGBT persons in the workplace
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is subjected to bullying and harassment in the workplace on a devastating scale. A survey of more than 5,000 LGBT people in the UK, published by Stonewell in April 2018, found that more than a third hid their sexuality for fear of ...
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ArticleMorrisons receives permission to appeal payroll data breach case at Supreme Court
Supermarket retailer Morrisons has been granted permission to appeal a High Court ruling, which found that the organisation was partly liable for a data breach leading to the payroll data of around 10,000 staff being posted online.Andrew Skelton, who was a senior auditor at the organisation’s Bradford headquarters, posted employees’ ...
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ArticleNew Zealand launches consultation to support older staff
The New Zealand government has launched a consultation on its draft strategy to better support older individuals, including encouraging the employment of those aged over 50.The Better later life: 2019 to 2034 consultation opened on 12 April 2019 and will run until 3 June 2019. Following this, the government will ...