Employment

Government launches consultations on Home Office codes of practice on avoiding unlawful discrimination for those carrying out ‘right to rent’ and ‘right to work’ checks

Feedback sought by 25 February 2022 in respect of new codes that will be in force from April 2022

Level of fraud and error in furlough payments that employers will get away with as a result of HMRC ‘ignorance and inaction’ is a real concern, say MPs

New report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee highlights that £5.3 billion was lost in payments made through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in 2020/2021

MPs call on government to introduce legislation requiring employers to report ethnicity pay gap data

Government has 'no excuse' for failing to move ahead with proposals in 2018 consultation, says Chair of Women and Equalities Committee

Northern Ireland Assembly passes bill to introduce parental bereavement leave and pay

Bill includes provision to align rights with those for the rest of the UK and to extend these at a later date to make bereavement pay a day one right and to include working parents who suffer loss of a child through miscarriage

Round-up of recent Employment Appeal Tribunal case law

High Court rules that an employer could not terminate employees’ contracts and then re-engage them on terms that did not include earlier contractual assurances on pay

Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers & Ors v Tesco Stores Ltd [2022] EWHC 201 (QB)

Kickstart scheme’s failure to hit its target is because the ‘wider economic recovery has been so strong’

Minister confirms that, less than two months before the scheme is due to close, only 122,000 jobs have been started against a target of 250,000

Court of Appeal rules that where employee was denied the opportunity to exercise the right to paid annual leave, the right did not lapse but carried over and accumulated until termination of his contract

Smith v Pimlico Plumbers Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 70

Government to consult on removing vaccination as a condition of employment for health and social care staff

Secretary of State tells parliament that it's not only right but responsible to revisit the balance of risks and opportunities that guided the government's original decision last year.

Wales TUC launches survey in response to increase in workers reporting sexual harassment during Covid-19 pandemic

Results will help support union representatives in combatting perpetrators, and to campaign for an end to sexual harassment for everyone

Round-up of recent Employment Appeal Tribunal case law

DWP expands Restart scheme to include universal credit claimants who have been unemployed for nine months or more

New edition of Touchbase also outlines discretionary grounds for referring claimants to the scheme who have been unemployed for shorter periods

Government confirms that Identification Document Validation Technology will enable more people to verify their immigration status online to comply with the ‘right to rent’ and ‘right to work’ regimes

Certified service providers will carry out the checks on behalf of landlords, letting agents and employers, making ID checking 'quicker, easier and more secure'

Employment case law round up

Court of Appeal rules that agreement allowing a partner in an accountancy firm to stay on beyond normal retirement date was a ‘once and for all event’ for the purposes of deciding whether a discrimination claim had been brought in time

Parr v MSR Partners LLP & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 24

Employment case law round up

Extending right to be provided with PPE to ‘gig economy’ workers

New statutory instrument addresses High Court ruling that UK Government had failed to properly apply provisions within EU health and safety directives to ‘limb (b)’ workers