Employment

Total value of claims made to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme now exceeds £50 billion

Monthly HMRC statistics also show that almost £20 billion has been claimed in first three tranches of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

Amendments to regulations setting out how a week’s pay is to be calculated for purposes of calculating statutory payments for furloughed workers

New statutory instrument makes amendments in consequence of Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme being extended to 30 April 2021

EHRC announces that enforcement action against employers failing to report gender pay gap will start on 5 October 2021

Employers given extra six months to file pay gap data in response to ongoing effects of Covid-19 pandemic

Court of Appeal rules that the doctrine of ‘res judicata’ does not apply to internal trade union disciplinary decisions

[2021] EWCA Civ 199

Employment case law round up

Employment Bill amongst a number of pieces of legislation that need to be given ‘due priority’ in next Parliamentary Session

Government urged to deliver on its commitments to and demands from Select Committees on 'vitally important legislation'

High Court rules that Self-Employment Income Support Scheme does not unlawfully discriminate against women who have taken leave relating to maternity or pregnancy

[2021] EWHC 309 (Admin)

Full CJRS needs to remain in place for several months after public health restrictions have been lifted, and then only phased out gradually

Resolution Foundation highlights that more than 20 per cent of workers who have been furloughed for at least six months of the Covid crisis either expect to lose their jobs in the next three months, or have been told that they will be made redundant

Government has provided ‘scant justification’ for not addressing ‘hard edges’ of coronavirus support schemes that have excluded key groups of working people

Treasury Committee's third report on economic impacts of coronavirus includes call to amend fourth tranche of SEISS to support newly self-employed who missed out on previous support

Northern Ireland Economy Minister announces changes to eligibility criteria for Covid-19 Newly Self-Employed Support Scheme

Conditions relaxed for meeting eligibility rule that 50 per cent of income must have come from self-employment

Employment case law round up

Organisations across employment rights sector call on Business Secretary to extend redundancy protection to pregnant women and new mothers

Letter to Kwasi Kwarteng from more than 20 support organisations and unions calls for existing Bill that proposes new legal protections to be expedited into law

Government speed in bringing forward its new maternity allowance Bill is in marked contrast to its failure to act on previous commitments to provide support and protection to pregnant women and new parents

Maternity Action also highlights how the measures in the Bill contrast with the 'ludicrously low' basic rate of both statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance

Government includes jobcentre work coaches in a count of the ‘number of people supported’ through its Plan for Jobs

More than 13,000 recent work coach recruits included in nearly two million 'Brits' being supported into work through 'innovative' schemes

Government’s Covid response continues to overlook ‘specific and well-understood labour market and caring inequalities faced by women’, MPs warn

Women and Equalities Committee urges government to ‘seize opportunity’ to stop repeated ‘skewing’ of its policies towards men as it implements recovery strategies

Employment case law round up

Government says that its claim that its new Kickstart scheme had ‘moved up a gear’ used an incorrect figure for the number of jobs created

Secretary of State issues letter of correction in respect of her answers in the Commons, and Work and Pensions Minister corrects series of written parliamentary answers