Clarkslegal Law Bites

TUPE can be a very complicated area of law to navigate and so we have designed a series of short podcasts to give you a really good overview of the basics.  In this podcast, Louise Keenan, Associate in the employment team at Clarkslegal will be focusing on what TUPE is and when it applies. If you have any questions in relation to TUPE, please contact our employment lawyers for advice.

There’s been a lot of publicity recently about the Supreme Court case of Harpur Trust v Brazel and its impact on calculating holiday entitlement and pay for workers. The case specifically concerned holiday entitlement and pay for what were termed ‘part-year workers’.  These are workers who are on a permanent contract, who work irregular hours and who do not work every week of the year.  The case i...

In this podcast Melanie Pimenta and Sana Nahas members of the Data Protection team at Clarkslegal discuss some of the issues surrounding non-compliance with subject access requests, commonly known as “DSARs”. This is particularly topical given that the ICO has recently announced that it has issued reprimands to seven organisations for repeatedly failing to respond to data subject access requests u...

Earlier this year, the UK Government announced the introduction of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill in which the consultation considered specifically on the interplay of AI technologies with the UK’s data protection regime. On 18 July 2022, the UK Government set out its proposals for regulating the use of AI technologies while protecting data and promoting innovation. In this podca...

Restructuring can cover a vast range of situations, including changes to a company’s structure, business model or processes. It can be similar to a redundancy process in that it may involve a reduction in work of a particular kind being required. Recently, many employers have been considering restructuring their business, particularly in light of the global pandemic and various ways of working. No...

Employees can now be signed off work when sick by nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists and physiotherapists who can sign statements of fitness for work, also known as a GP fit note. This change has been brought in to ease the burden on GPs. But what might this mean for employers who suspect that a worker is exaggerating their condition for some reason: perhaps to avoid performance manageme...

Employment status and how it is determined has been an issue that has vexed the courts recently, with cases in both the employment and tax tribunals. An individual’s employment status determines what type of protections and rights they are entitled to, and establishing status involves the consideration of many different factors. In this podcast listen to the case of Sejpal v Rodericks Dental Limit...

In this podcast Melanie Pimenta and Jacob Montague solicitors in the Data Protection team at Clarkslegal and discuss some of the issues surrounding data protection and hybrid or remote working. Since the pandemic remote and hybrid working have become the new normal and this raises some interesting questions on data protection and how organisations can make sure data is protected whilst employees a...

Clarkslegal's Data Protection Solicitors Melanie Pimenta and Amanda Glover explain what data breaches are, how they can be risk assessed and an organisation’s obligation to report data breaches. It’s an interesting time to pick up on this topic because the ICO is promoting a back to basics focus on data security, so it’s an area where we’ve seen more guidance and also more enforcement action.

Clarkslegal's Employment Solicitor Melanie Pimenta explains the new lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and what this means for employers. 

Liz Bradley, Senior Employment Solicitor and Data Protection specialist takes a deep dive into the complicated process of employee monitoring. It's a topic that has hit the headlines partly due to remote ways of working  and also due to a rise in the range of software allowing tracking of employees.  So what is the law on employee monitoring? And what can employers do? 

The pandemic has brought the topic of health and wellbeing to the forefront, not least in the employment sphere. With an overnight move for many from office to homeworking, there was an increased focus on mental resilience, loneliness, and the blurred lines between work and rest, and between work and home life. Across the country, many employees suddenly had the opportunity to experience both the...

It’s inevitable that many employers will now find themselves facing an increasing number of flexible working requests from employees who have been able to work remotely from home in recent months and wish to continue to do so in some form.    Under the current statutory framework there are eight grounds on which such requests can be refused including where this would have a detrimental impact on q...

Sunday 10 October 2021 marks World Mental Health Day, with this year’s official theme announced by the World Federation for Mental Health as “Mental Health in an Unequal World”.  The explanation for the theme by WFMH reflects on the “increasingly polarised” world, with inequalities in race and ethnicity and gender identity highlighted during the pandemic. These inequalities can impact on people’s...

We spend approximately 90,000 hours of our lives at work. The only thing we spend more time doing than working, is sleeping. Where an individual spends such a significant percentage of their lives working, one would assume they would ensure their work makes them happy and is something that they actively look forward to. However, it is no secret that many people do not like their jobs. Only about 4...

As the UK economy continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions of the last 18 months, the number of job vacancies are reaching record highs. Many businesses across a number of sectors have been able to reopen in full in the UK since the final restrictions lifted on 19 July 2021. This has created a serious increase in demand for workers, with the ONS estimating that between...

Speculators predicted a surge in redundancies this autumn as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme comes to an end on the 30th September. However, this surge doesn’t appear to be forthcoming. Despite 1.9 million workers still being on furlough at the end of June, recent data from the Insolvency Service (the body employers must notify when they are making 20 or more staff redundant) shows that the p...

Employment agency Reed has reported a 20% increase in the number of new positions offering unlimited annual leave as part of the benefits packages. Along with flexible working, it seems to be incentive employers are keen to explore and use as they compete to recruit the best talent from a pandemic weary workforce that values well-being and work-life balance. But is it always a good idea? And how c...

The deadline for EU (including EEA and Swiss citizens) to apply to continue living in the UK is fast approaching, with the EU Settlement Scheme set to close in less than two weeks’ time on 30 June 2021. UK employers should be working with their EU staff to ensure their registration to the Scheme by this date.   If an employee intends to apply under the Scheme but has not yet done so, employers sho...

The past year has seen a significant increase in the amount of homeworking taking place. Before the pandemic, around 5% of those in employment worked from home, whereas during the pandemic this number increased to around 43% of workers.   Homeworking was trialled ‘en masse’ in possibly the worst set of circumstances. It took place in a time of severe social isolation where there were none of the u...

While the Government grapples with whether to continue with the planned final easing of lockdown restrictions on 21 June 2021, employers are continuing with their preparations to welcome employees (at least partially) back to the workplace. While much of the focus during these preparations will be on preventing infections, employers should also consider how they will support employees who have alr...

Whistleblowers are in the headlines following the Dyson report into the Panorama interview in 1995 with the Diana, Princess of Wales. Lord Dyson found that Martin Bashir had acted deceitfully in the way he obtained the interview with the Princess of Wales. Since the publication of the report, press attention has also turned to how the BBC may have treated insiders who tried to expose Bashir’s meth...

Lockdown restrictions are set to be eased further on 17 May 2021, and many employers are beginning to welcome their employees back to the workplace. While it is understandable that employers will be focused on protecting their employees’ physical health, ensuring that its workplace is Covid-19 secure, consideration should also be given to how employers can safeguard their employees’ mental health....

With the summer months fast approaching and with the fatigue of more than a year of lockdowns weighing on us, many are hoping the second half of this year will provide ample opportunity to enjoy holidays abroad again. Employers are advised to start thinking about how they will deal with annual leave requests and foreign travel. With travel restrictions in place for most of 2020, many workers decid...

HMRC guidance sets out that if an employee is working from home due to COVID-19, a homeworking arrangement will exist for this period.   Employees working from home regularly therefore may be able to benefit from certain tax exemptions, although this cannot be where they are working informally. HMRC guidance has confirmed that if an employee is working from home due to COVID-19, the definition of...