5 Must-Knows This Week:

1. Disability discrimination update. Why tribunals are scrutinising employers more closely ⚖️
2. Employees stranded abroad. Five issues every employer should consider ✈️
3. The workplace health gap and why it matters 🏥
4. Your team is not resistant to change. They are exhausted 😩
5. Is meeting overload eroding leadership judgement? 📅

In other news................New SSP rules. Real implications for NI employers. Join our "SSP Reform and Managing Sickness Absence in NI" event on 19th March. The employment law experts at Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP will get you up to speed with the changes coming this April. More details HERE. 

1. Case Law Reviews
2. AI and Employment Law
3. Spring Statement
4. Neurodiversity at Work
5. International Women’s Day – 8 March
6. Disability discrimination update: why tribunals are scrutinising employers more closely
7. Work-life Balance
8. Employees stranded abroad: five issues for employers
9. Remote-working breaches as phishing fears reach record high
10. Just in Case You Missed It...
11. HR Developments
12. Employment News in the Media
13. GB Developments
14. Friends of Legal Island
15. Free Webinars This Month

Vidovics v Manfreight Ltd [2026] NIIT 34820/24

Summary Description: 

Claimant was dismissed when P45 was sent following a lack of clarity which led to the respondent mistakenly believing that the claimant had resigned.

Claimant: 

Janos Vidovics

Respondent: 

Manfreight Ltd

Practical Guidance for Employers:

A factually interesting case where there was a clear miscommunication leading to the P45 and ‘dismissal’ being sent to the claimant via email.   Despite recognising that there was a lack of clarity the respondent did not reverse the decision, withdraw the P45 or reinstate the claimant.  This, as a result, was a dismissal and the lack of compliance with the statutory procedure led to that claim being successful.   Ensuring clarity in receiving a resignation before acting upon it is absolutely crucial and ensuring that it objectively would be regarded as a resignation is needed in terms of evidence that can be shown.

Read the Review in full: Vidovics v Manfreight Ltd [2026]

McGreevy v NFU Mutual Insurance Society Ltd [2025] NICA 66

Summary Description: 

Claimant was not found to be an employee or a worker so the Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear the claim.

Claimant: 

John McGreevy

Respondent: 

NFU Mutual Insurance Society Ltd

Practical Guidance for Employers:

It is good to see a case in the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal entering into the discussion relating to employment status. This is especially so considering the length and breadth of the jurisprudence arising from the courts in England and Wales.  In this decision, it may have been found that there was a mutuality of obligations but that was not found to be determinative and had to be taken into account in terms of the overall context of the arrangement which clearly demonstrated an intention for the claimant to be self-employed and could substitute his own service through the employment of others.

Read the Review in full: McGreevy v NFU Mutual Insurance Society Ltd [2025]

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These case reviews were written by Jason Elliott BL.  NI Tribunal decisions are available on the OITFET website.

If you have any queries or wish to comment on the reports please feel free to contact Jason at: jasondelliott@outlook.com 

Jason Elliott was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2013 and is the Associate Head of School of Law at Ulster University. As a practising barrister, he has developed a largely civil practice representing individuals, companies and public bodies in litigation.  This covers a wide range of areas including personal injuries, wills and employment law. In terms of employment law, he has represented both applicants and respondents in the Industrial Tribunal.   At Ulster University, Jason lectures extensively on the civil areas of practise such as Equity and Trusts and delivers employment law lectures for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Remember: Our case law reviews are held in our case law section on our fully-searchable employment law hub website.

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People Survey 2025: Civil servants set out AI gains and expectations

In this article from Civil Service World, staff offer insight on time savings from artificial intelligence and predict the extent to which technology will change their jobs with a quarter of civil servants answering that using artificial intelligence to assist with their work is saving them at least an hour every week. More.

AI for HR Weekly Podcast with Barry Phillips 🎙️

This week's episode:

You can tune into the latest episode right here - or, if you’re on the move, why not take us with you?

Listen on 🎧 Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Simply search for “AI for HR Weekly Podcast” and enjoy expert insights anytime, anywhere.

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave an update on her plans for the UK economy, when she delivered the Spring Statement on Tuesday. 

Spring statement: unemployment expected to reach 5.3 per cent

Unemployment is expected to peak at 5.3 per cent later this year, according to Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts released alongside chancellor Rachel Reeves’s spring statement.  The unemployment rate hit a five-year high of 5.2 per cent at the end of 2025 and is not forecast to improve until 2027, when it is expected to gradually fall to an estimated equilibrium rate of 4.1 per cent by 2030. People Management has more.

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📅Thursday 26th March 2026
⏰12:30 - 14:00 ( 1 hour 30 mins )
📍Online

Part of the Skill Builder for HR series, this 90-minute practical session is designed for HR professionals managing diverse ways of working across their organisations. Dr Susan Hill of Medmark Occupational Healthcare will share practical guidance on helping HR move from reactive case management to proactive, culture-shaping impact. You’ll gain clear, actionable insights to better support employees, partner effectively with occupational health, and strengthen team dynamics. More here.

Legal Island Employment Law Hub Members receive two FREE Skill builder places*

*As part of their subscription - worth £270. T&Cs apply.

Find out more about all the upcoming Skill Builder for HR sessions HERE. 

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Are assumptions creating barriers for women seeking leadership roles?

Data from Hogan Assessments explores how falsehoods about women in positions of power can result in missed opportunities for all. Silicon Republic has more.

The Workplace Health Gap

Women make up nearly half of today’s workforce, but systems are still catching up

Women make up nearly half of today’s workforce, yet many still find themselves facing structures that were not built with their health needs in mind. While hybrid schedules, flexible hours, and remote options have transformed the way we work, there is still progress to be made in fully supporting women through key life stages like menstrual health, pregnancy, maternity, childcare, and menopause. Superdrug Online Doctor surveyed 2,000 women aged 16-55+ to uncover how the workplace health gap is impacting their careers. More.

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Disability discrimination remains one of the most common bases for employment tribunal claims. Acas’s annual report suggests an upward trend rather than levelling off. For employers, the significance lies not only in volume but in where these claims arise. Tribunal decisions consistently show that disputes often stem from routine people management, rather than discriminatory intent. More here from People Management.

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UK workers put in £28 billion in unpaid overtime in the last year

New analysis published today by the TUC (Friday) for Work Your Proper Hours Day shows that UK workers put in £28.5 billion in unpaid overtime in 2025. This represents a modest improvement from 2024, when unpaid overtime put in by UK workers amounted to close to £31 billion.  However, workers who do unpaid overtime miss out on 6.8 hours of their own time a week – for the benefit of their employer.   In the course of one year, this amounts to a loss of £8,100 for the average person doing unpaid overtime work.  TUC has more.

Why flexibility alone is not easing pressure in the legal sector

The 2026 Modern Families Index legal sector report highlights how care pressures are affecting legal professionals:

•    35 percent report very high stress at work
•    Only 11 percent describe their stress levels as low
•    Legal employees are nearly twice as likely to report high stress as those in tech 
•    Four in ten legal professionals say having children has negatively impacted their career
•    Just 53 percent believe their organisation cares about their work and home life balance

The Law Society Gazette reports on how this is no longer just a wellbeing issue. It is becoming a retention and workforce sustainability risk for legal employers. Read more here.

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The cancellation of thousands of flights and the closure of airspace in the Middle East are having an impact on the workplace, particularly when employees are left stranded or their holiday plans are affected. How should employers tackle workplace issues arising from the flight disruptions caused by the US and Israel’s war with Iran? Personnel Today has more on this.

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The UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 reveals that 29% of UK organisations experienced at least one security incident linked to remote or hybrid working in the last 12 months, with phishing accounting for 85% of all business breaches recorded. For charities, the figure is even higher, with 86% of breaches involving phishing attacks, highlighting the breadth of the threat across both commercial and voluntary sectors. HR Director outlines the risks.

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The Employment Law Hub is a comprehensive, jurisdiction-specific resource designed for HR professionals, legal advisors, and business leaders. It centralises essential employment law and HR updates, expertly curated and written by leading HR and legal specialists to provide reliable, practical, and authoritative insights. We have over 700+ in depth articles and 1000+ case law reviews. As a subscriber, you have access to all of this. Check it out the full Hub here and below are some recent articles you may have missed.....

Your Team Isn't Change Resistant - They're Exhausted

Deirdre Morrison, Co-Founder, Dynacorum Change Technologies provides her insights on the Neuroscience of Change Readiness and Change Fatigue. Read here.

Q&A: with Madison Bowyer of Arthur Cox LLP

Stay ahead of the curve with our exclusive Q&A series, brought to you by leading law firm, Arthur Cox LLP, designed to answer your most pressing legal questions. These expert insights provide clear guidance to ensure your HR practices remain compliant and protect your organisation.

This month's questions:

1. What is the new miscarriage leave coming in for Northern Ireland in April 2026?
2. What changes are expected in 2026 for statutory sick pay?

3. An employee refused to come into work due to icy roads. Can we require him/her to work from home instead of taking leave?

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Is meeting overload degrading leadership judgement?

Hybrid work made meetings easy to add and hard to recover from. When leaders spend whole days in high demand calls, judgement becomes brittle and conflict escalates faster. This feature from HR Director outlines a meeting load standard HR can run, with meeting tags, daily caps, camera norms, decision design, and protected recovery windows.

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A 'serial litigant' branded 'vexatious' after making more than 12 unsuccessful discrimination claims following rejected job applications has finally won a case. Mudassar Mubin, 45, claims he is a victim of prejudice on the grounds of disability because he speaks with a stammer, as well as due to his British Pakistani background. More.

A fire chief has won a £4,000 payout after he was sacked for hurling a disabled YouTuber's phone over a hedge. Mr Evans, who is disabled, uploaded the footage online and reported Mr Linden who was sacked after 32 years of service. After winning an unfair dismissal case against Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, an employment tribunal has awarded Mr Linden £3,938 and he is in line to receive more. Daily Mail has the full story.

A Sainsbury’s manager with a disability who was dismissed during his probation for refusing to work extra hours has been awarded £32,000 after an employment tribunal ruled he was discriminated against. Ricky Taylor, who worked at the St Albans branch, was promoted to customer and trading manager in September 2022. His new contract stated that his working pattern could change depending on the needs of the business, including weekends, late nights, night shifts and bank holidays. More from employee benefits.

A Co Antrim company has been hit with a five-figure fine after one of its workers was left seriously injured. Sean Kelly Commercials Ltd in south-west Tyrone had admitted breaching health and safety rules around the accident and was fined £14,000. The Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland said that on October 23, 2023, the worker had become trapped “between the trailer bed of a four-axle beavertail lorry and its rear wheel” whilst investigating the source of an air leak. More from the Newsletter.

The Irish News reports retail giant Marks & Spencer has dropped its pledge to pay workers in line with the real living wage in this year’s salary rise for its 55,000 store employees. The high street chain said it will increase pay by at least 6.4% from April 1 for retail staff, boosting wages to £13.41 an hour nationwide, or £14.74 per hour for those based in London. But M&S is no longer offering pay in line with the real living wage, which is a voluntary benchmark, designed to be calculated on the real cost of living, and is currently set at £13.45 an hour in the UK and £14.80 in London. Read more.

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NB: Please note these articles relate to GB and do not apply in Northern Ireland, unless otherwise stated.

Government launches gender pay gap and menopause action plans

The GB government has formally launched equality action plans, where employers set out what they are doing to address gender pay gaps and support menopausal staff at work. From April, employers in GB with 250 or more employees will be encouraged to publish the steps they are taking to reduce their gender pay gap and support employees through menopause on a dedicated government portal. From Spring 2027, this will become mandatory as part of the Employment Rights Act 2025. Personnel Today has more.

But are employers prepared for this.....

Most employers unprepared for menopause compliance deadline, as three in four say the law does not go far enough

Under the Employment Rights Act, organisations with over 250 employees will be required to publish a menopause action plan from 2027. Voluntary publication begins in April 2026. Interestingly, however, when questioned, only 3% of respondents said they already publish one annually. Nearly four in ten (39%) said they were not sure when or whether they would publish, and a further 8% said they had no plans to do so at all. More from Legal Futures.

Non-compete clauses: CMA supports reform

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has signalled its agreement with the Government that the law relating to non-compete clauses in employment contracts is ripe for reform. Four options were proposed:

• A statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses;
• A statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses according to the size of the company, with a longer period for smaller companies;
• A total ban on non-compete clauses; and
• A ban on non-compete clauses below a salary threshold

The team at Wiggins explains here.

Acas: Employment Rights Act 2025 - April 2026 changes

More employment law changes will happen in April 2026:

Paternity leave and ordinary parental leave

These things will change on 6 April 2026:

• paternity leave will become a 'day one right', allowing someone to give notice of leave from the first day of employment – currently someone must have worked for their employer for 26 weeks
• ordinary parental leave, or unpaid parental leave, will also become a day one right – currently someone must have worked for their employer for 1 year to be eligible
• the restriction on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave will be removed - eligible fathers and partners will be able to take up to 52 weeks of unpaid bereaved partner's paternity leave if the mother or primary adopter dies – they must take this leave within 52 weeks of the child's birth (including surrogacy), adoption placement, or entry to Great Britain for overseas adoptions

Sick pay

These changes will happen on 6 April 2026:

• statutory sick pay (SSP) will be paid from the first day of illness, instead of the fourth day
• the lower earnings limit will be removed – currently, workers must earn a minimum amount to be eligible for statutory sick pay
• Collective redundancy protective award - The maximum 'protective award' for failure to consult in collective redundancy will double from 90 days' pay to 180 days' pay. This will change on 6 April 2026.

Whistleblowing protections for sexual harassment

• Sexual harassment will become a 'qualifying disclosure' under whistleblowing law. This will mean protection from detriment and unfair dismissal for whistleblowers making a sexual harassment disclosure. This will change on 6 April 2026.
• Gender pay gap and menopause action plans - Employers will need to create action plans around menopause and gender pay gaps. These will be voluntary from 6 April 2026. They will become mandatory sometime in 2027.

Trade union recognition

• How a trade union can be recognised in a workplace will be simplified. This will change on 6 April 2026.

Fair Work Agency

The Fair Work Agency will be established on 7 April 2026, to:

• bring together existing enforcement bodies
• take on enforcement of other employment rights, such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay

You can read more from Acas.
 
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Emma McIlveen appointed as Scottish employment judge

A huge congratulations to friend of Legal Island, Emma McIlveen BL who's been appointed as a Scottish employment judge. Read the full story in Irish Legal News.

Shirley Blair joins Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP

And similar congratulations are due to Shirley Blair as she starts her new role as Legal Director in Lewis Silkin (NI) LLP this week.

You can join Shirley and her new Lewis Silkin colleagues at the Legal Island 'SSP Reform and Managing Sickness Absence in NI' on 19th March. More details HERE. 

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Employment Law at 11: 

New Legislation: Paid Miscarriage Leave and Bereavement Rights

📅 TODAY!

🕒 11am to 11.45am

📍 Live online | Free to attend

Register here. 

NEW LEGISLATION ALERT: Join Seamus McGranaghan of O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors and Christine Quinn of Legal Island for the next instalment of Employment Law at 11. They’ll be offering a guide to paid miscarriage leave in Northern Ireland, coming into effect in April 2026, and broader guidance on supporting employees through bereavement. We’ll cover statutory entitlements, policy considerations, and best practice for compassionate workplace support, helping employers navigate these sensitive situations with confidence.

**As a bonus for attending you'll receive FREE access to Legal Island's Bereavement in the Workplace eLearning course**

Enjoy your weekend!

Legal Island

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