In Brief: Important Updates from August 2019

A number of useful articles were added to the Legal Island Northern Ireland Employment Law Hub throughout the months of July and August. Here is a quick recap of some of the recent developments within the employment law sphere:

Prevent Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace

Leanne Armstrong, TLT NI LLP, looks at the legal obligations around preventing bullying and harassment and how you can build a policy to prevent bullying or harassment in your organisation.

Key Considerations in Preparing a Disciplinary/Grievance Outcome Letter

In the fourth of our ‘Back to Basics’ video series, Jill Gracey, Associate Solicitor in the A&L Goodbody Employment and Incentives team, discusses the steps involved in preparing a letter to confirm the outcome of a Disciplinary or Grievance matter.  This includes ensuring that all the evidence has been gathered; all allegations are addressed separately and the right of appeal is included.

Let’s Talk About ‘Ending Free Movement’: What Is Changing?

Lisa Bryson, Eversheds Sutherland, discusses the proposed changes to the immigration rules in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

How to Avoid Discrimination When Enhancing Family-Related Employment Benefits

Jack Balmer, Tughans, discusses the implications of the Ali v Capita Customer Management Ltd and Hextall v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police [2019] for provision of enhanced family related employment benefits.

Are ‘Difficult’ Employees in Breach of Contract?

Patricia Rooney, Tughans, provides some guidance on how to deal with a particularly difficult employee and discusses the appropriateness of using the ‘loss of trust and confidence’ approach to dismissal.

First Tuesday Q&A’s

Over the last couple of months, Johanna Cunningham, Associate Solicitor in the Employment Team at Arthur Cox has answered a wide variety of questions, including:

• What are lawful deductions from wages that will not breach the NMW?
• Can an employee lawfully waive their right to notice?
• Does the “use it or lose it” principle still apply to annual leave?
• When is mandatory overtime payable to employees?
• Is it lawful for an employer only to provide payslips electronically to employees?
• Can an employer use an unpaid work trial as part of a recruitment process?

These and many more of your burning questions are available in our First Tuesday Q&A section

Restrictive Covenants – What’s new?

Kiera Lee, Director Mills Selig, considers the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32, and outlines what impacts this now has on the enforceability of restrictive covenant clauses.

Webinars

Recordings of the ‘Employment Law at 11’ webinar series with Seamus McGranaghan, Director, O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors, Hannah McGrath, Solicitor, O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors, and Scott Alexander, Head of Learning and Development at Legal Island are available to listen again.

Over the past couple of months, the webinars have dealt issues around:

• The many, many implications of the PSNI decision on holiday pay calculations
• Calculating Pay During Suspension
• Specifying working hours on a contract of employment

Transcripts of the webinars are also available along with questions and answers from the webinars.

TUPE Update:  Activity at the European Court or TUPE Update: Failure to transfer tangible assets – determinative or not?

Dr John McMullen, Partner in Stone King LLP Solicitors and leading expert in the UK on the Transfer of Undertakings, covers some interesting cases in this issue. In this Update he reviews activity at the European Court.  He focuses in particular on a recent Advocate General opinion regarding a potential transfer of a public bus service in which the bus fleet (assets) did not transfer.  There were particular reasons for this, but the AG stated that the failure to transfer tangible assets did not mean that a transfer had not taken place.  The wider issue is the very definition of the Directive which is to provide protection for employees in the event of a change of employer, in particular to safeguard their rights. 

5 Key Steps In Establishing An Effective Data Protection Compliance Programme

Louise McAloon, Employment Partner at Worthingtons Solicitors provides 5 key steps to help you and your organisation establish an effective data protection compliance programme.

Kiera Lee, Director in Mills Selig, considers the contractual clauses that an employer can insert into their contracts for all employees, to help provide protection in ascertaining and confirming an individual’s’ right to work’ status.  She also briefly discusses the impact that Brexit could have on an employer’s legal obligations in preventing illegal working.

Weekly Reviews

Some of the highlights from our recent weekly reviews:

• How good are we? Legal Island has been awarded Platinum Investors in People
• Calculating Holiday Pay for Workers Without Fixed Hours or Pay
• The ICO has updated its guidance around how long an organisation has to respond to a subject access request (SAR)
• The 'Gay Cake' Case has been referred to the European Court of Human Rights
• From 6th April 2020, the private sector will be brought in line with the public sector in relation to the IR35 tax regime and there is some excellent advice online
• The Court of Appeal has given guidance on annual leave calculations for term-time employees and how to record breaks
• The Rise of Automated Workers
• 2 million workers not getting legal holiday entitlement, warns TUC
• Dress Code Policies examined

All of the Weekly Review of Employment Law articles are available.