Archive for the ‘Employment Law’ Category
Back to School–Your Pensions Homework
It’s very difficult to keep up to speed with all of the issues that will arise on planet pensions in 2012.
To help your revision Eversheds have produced a really helpful Speedbrief that covers all of the main issues that lie ahead for us in 2012. You can click through to it here.
There’s no exam at the end of this homework. However, we hope you’ll find this summary useful.
Steve Clark
TUPE & Administrations
Just before we all went off for our break there were two important Employment Tribunal cases involving companies in administration.
TUPE is a minefield as it is when there is a company transaction involved. It’s easy for an employer to come a cropper. Throw into this heady mix one side that is, or has been, in administration and it’s ever more complicated.
We are, therefore, grateful to Dechert LLP for their employment law update that sets out a good summary of the cases and where we stand now in this area. You can click through to the summary here.
As always with these cases the cost of a good legal adviser is a sound investment.
Steve Clark
Cost cutting–alternatives to redundancies
We’re constantly working with clients and prospective clients looking to make sure that the money they spend on benefits is effective.
In the current economic climate we look to save money for the employer. In a previous blog post “Is your advisor saving you this much?” we looked at the money we had saved a client who had recently appointed us. You can read the post by clicking here and find out how we saved them £95 per day!
When things like the benefit spend have been tackled some employers are still looking to save costs and then go on to consider redundancies. We received an update today from McDermott Will & Emery – an international legal firm. There’s a really good article in there that cover alternatives to redundancies. It’s well worth a read if you are looking at this type of exercise. You can click here to read the article.
If you are looking to save money on your benefits programme please email us at talk2us@44financial.co.uk.
Steve Clark
Weight for it! More on employment status
There has been a recent appeal in the Upper Tribunal from Weight Watchers (UK) Limited regarding the employment status of their Weight Watchers leaders that run their classes.
Weight Watchers said for tax purposes they were self employed and not an employee. The Tribunal disagreed and found they were employees. The Upper Tribunal looked at the degree of control Weight Watchers had over the leaders. The crux was that the Tribunal looked at the reality of the situation not just the documentation that Weight Watchers had in place.
What does this mean?
People who Weight Watchers thought were self employed are actually their employees. This means that Weight Watchers now face a huge tax bill. This is a clear warning that the Tribunal will ignore any documentation if this doesn’t accurately reflect the true position.
From a benefits perspective it also means that as employees Weight Watchers may face claims for backdated benefits such as pension that other employees are entitled to.
What should employers do?
You should make sure you regularly review your documentation to ensure that this reflects what’s happening in practice. You may also want to ensure they you provisions in place so you can recover tax and national insurance contributions from your employees.
As always if you have individuals working for you that you have deemed self-employed you may need t get some advice from your usual employment and legal advisers.
Steve Clark
European Decision on Sick Leave & Holidays
Well just like London buses the cases on this are coming thick and fast! You can read our last blog posts on this here and here .
A German case was heard by the European Court of Justice on Tuesday this week regarding whether an employee who was off ill could carry forward holidays. This seems now to be the main issue that is unresolved.
Eversheds have produced a piece for their Education HR publication. Although it’s aimed at educational establishments the impact of the case affects all employers.
You can click through to the article here.
The position now seems to be that workers who are on sick leave have a choice: they can take annual leave if they want to, but if they don’t want to they can insist on postponing their annual leave and taking it at a later date. That can even mean taking it in a later holiday year if it’s not possible to take the leave before the current year ends.
I can’t help that thinking that this is one step forward and then two back. As always with this particular issue – watch this space!
Steve Clark