All Tax and legislation articles – Page 8
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Article
Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill receives Royal Assent
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill has received Royal Assent as of this month.The initial bill drafting proposed liability on employers for harassment of their employees by third parties, such as a customer, client, supplier or contractor, which meant an employee could therefore be harassed by simply ...
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Opinion
Colin Godfrey: Supreme Court ruling on unlawful wages deduction from unpaid or underpaid holiday pay
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the important case of Chief Constable of Northern Ireland v Agnew. In a judgment that will be welcomed, the Supreme Court has determined that, in a claim by an employee for an unlawful deduction of wages arising from unpaid ...
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Article
Tribunal awards former White Lake Cheese employee £20k for pregnancy discrimination
A former office worker, who was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against on pregnancy grounds by White Lake Cheese, has been awarded £19,700 by an employment tribunal.Storm Botha started working at White Lake Cheese as a cheese-making assistant in September 2020. After two months, she occasionally worked in the office doing ...
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Opinion
Jenny Arrowsmith: The growing issue of menopause in the workplace
HM Courts and Tribunal Service’s June 2023 data revealed an increasing number of employment tribunal cases citing menopause as a contributing factor. There has been a steady rise in cases over the past few years. In 2017, there were five cases, increasing to six in 2018 and seven in 2019. ...
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Article
Tribunal rules Starling Bank must pay £1.1m following health-related dismissal
Credit: rafapress / Shutterstock.comA former solicitor employed by Starling Bank has been awarded £1.1 million after an employment tribunal ruled that she had received unfavourable treatment and been unfairly dismissed.As an asthmatic, Gulnaz Raja told her employer that she would need to work from home and have time off during ...
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Opinion
Laura Tracey and Rubina Kakuji: How to support your employees during Baby Loss Awareness Week
Baby Loss Awareness Week is held every year in the UK from 9 – 15 October and is a time for people to come together to commemorate the lives of babies lost in pregnancy or at or soon after birth.Regardless of the stage of the pregnancy that loss occurs, it ...
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Article
Supreme Court rules Police Service of Northern Ireland must pay £40m in holiday pay case
The UK Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal made by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and ruled that it will have to pay approximately £40 million in holiday pay to its officers.In 2018, an industrial tribunal determined that unlawful deductions were made from the holiday pay of nearly ...
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Opinion
Audrey Williams: How can EU equal pay regulation benefit UK workers?
The government has confirmed that it will ensure European Union (EU) derived protection under equal pay laws will remain in place for employees and workers. It is important to remember the assurances given previously, that leaving the EU would not have the effect of eroding employment rights.This has come under ...
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Article
National living wage to rise to at least £11 per hour in 2024
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has announced that the national living wage will increase to at least £11 per hour from April 2024.Hunt made this announcement yesterday at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, where he committed to accept the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations.These recommendations, which will be announced ...
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Opinion
Christopher Hitchins: The impact of The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023
In a bid to address the new types of working patterns that are associated with the gig economy, the government’s long-awaited private members’ bill entitled The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 has received Royal Assent in the House of Lords.The bill, which forms part of the government’s 2017 ...
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Article
Leigh Day brings pay and employment status claim against Veezu
Law firm Leigh Day has announced that it is taking taxi operator Veezu to employment tribunal to contest workers’ employment status and pay terms.The firm represents up to 12,500 taxi drivers who work for Veezu, which owns more than a dozen local taxi organisations using booking apps across England and ...
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Article
Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 gains Royal Assent
The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 has passed through the House of Lords to receive Royal Assent.Brought forward by Blackpool South MP Scott Benton and Baroness Anderson, the new law will give all workers, including those on zero-hours contracts, the legal right to request a predictable working pattern ...
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Article
Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Bill receives Royal Assent
The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) (No. 2) Bill has received Royal Assent.The bill, introduced in the House of Commons by Jonathan Gullis MP and taken through the House of Lords by Baroness Altmann, will see the age at which eligible workers must be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme ...
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Opinion
Sarah Clay: Should pension schemes trace missing members?
Many pension schemes will have missing members to whom benefits are due but cannot be paid as they are not contactable.As people move house, change their name or change their contact details, they may update as many organisations as they can with their new details. But what happens if they ...
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Article
HMRC publishes consultation on reporting salary advances
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published a consultation on proposed amendments to regulations that will allow employers to delay reporting advance salary payments made to an employee.The proposed amendments will mean that employers can delay reporting these until the remainder of that salary instalment has been paid and certain ...
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Opinion
Danielle Ayres: How employers can ensure future resilience for workplace absences
It is crucial to ensure employers have crystal clear practices and policies for managing employee absences. Employers which properly invest in handling absences in the right way will see a marked improvement in staff performance, retention, productivity and business resilience.Absence management is central to ensuring ongoing business operations, helping minimise ...
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Article
Trades Union Congress reports government over Strikes Act
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has announced it is reporting the Conservative government to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) over the Strikes Act.In a press conference yesterday (10 September), Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, Esther Lynch, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, and two frontline workers, ...
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Opinion
Kris Weber: The impact of BBC v Christina Burns on pension costs
BBC v Christina Burns concerns the ability of employers to amend their old-fashioned and prohibitively expensive defined benefit pension schemes to make cost-saving changes. Often this is done by closing a scheme to future accrual, so members no longer earn any further benefits in it. The court said the BBC ...
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Article
Tribunal rules refusing pay rise to former Direct Line employee was unfair
Credit: T. Schneider / Shutterstock.comA menopausal former Direct Line insurance worker has been awarded £64,645.07 in a disability discrimination case after her boss refused to give her a pay rise amid claims she was “underperforming”.Maxine Lynskey began working for Direct Line in April 2016 and had no issues until March ...
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Article
Government confirms it will reinstate equal pay protection legislation
The government has confirmed it is to reinstate equal pay protection legislation after previously scrapping the European Union (EU) law behind it.The protection was axed among other laws after the UK left the EU as part of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 which was passed in ...