Employment

Work and Pensions Secretary welcomes ‘milestone’ of 100,000 young people starting jobs through the Kickstart Scheme

However, recent written answer in Parliament shows that more than half of Kickstart jobs advertised and made available for young people have yet to be filled

Bill to improve employment rights of zero hours contract workers passes First Stage in Northern Ireland Assembly

Provisions in the Bill include new right to three hours pay if an employee is called out to work but is subsequently not given work

Select Committee Chair expresses frustration at government’s failure to set a timescale for introducing the Employment Bill

Stephen Timms also says that it is disappointing that the government will not commit to a comprehensive cross-departmental strategy to respond to the changing labour market

Employment case law round up

Use of artificial intelligence is transforming work and working lives in ways that have outpaced, or avoid, existing regimes for regulation

Calling for a new Accountability for Algorithms Act, All-Party Parliamentary Group warns of marked gaps in legal protection at individual, collective and corporate levels

Employment case law round up

More than a million people were on furlough on the closure of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in September 2021

New HMRC figures also highlight that more than a fifth of employers still had staff on furlough, while more than half of those who remained on the scheme were earning less than £15,000 a year

NAO qualifies opinion on HMRC’s 2020/2021 accounts due to levels of fraud and error in Covid-19 support schemes

While acknowledging that HMRC has demonstrated considerable agility in responding at pace during the pandemic, Audit Office highlights that more than £5 billion in Job Retention Scheme payments are estimated to have been subject to fraud or error

Number of adults in England and Wales working for gig economy ‘platforms’ at least once a week triples in five years to reach 4.4 million

New TUC research also finds that almost a quarter of the workforce have done platform work at some point

Employment case law round up

Supreme Court rules that employer’s direct pay offers to workers who were members of a union, made while a collective bargaining process was ongoing, contravened section 145B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992

Kostal UK Ltd (Respondent) v Dunkley and others [2021] UKSC 47

Government accepts Low Pay Commission recommendation for increase in national living wage to £9.50 an hour

With rates of the national minimum wage to also increase from April 2022, Chancellor says 'this wage boost keeps us on track to meet our target to end low pay by the end of this parliament'

New Charter launched calling on government to tackle discrimination and ‘shift the dial’ on the disability employment gap

Supported by disability organisations, trade unions and academics, Charter sets out a 'bold plan' to bring down the barriers

Employment case law round up

Bill extending entitlement to parental bereavement leave and pay to parents of miscarried or stillborn babies receives first reading in House of Commons

Miscarriage 'is not an illness, and it is time the law stopped treating it like one', says Sarah Owen MP

Bill providing right to statutory paid leave for workers who are victims/survivors of domestic abuse in Northern Ireland receives first reading

Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Bill includes provision for at least 10 days leave in each leave year as a 'day one' right

Court of Appeal rules that moped delivery rider was a ‘worker’ as they did not have a sufficient right of substitution to remove obligation to perform work personally for delivery company

Stuart Delivery Ltd v Augustine [2021] EWCA Civ 1514