5 Must-Knows This Week:

1. Christmas parties should be celebrations, not legal headaches 🎄
2. Key budget updates every employer needs to watch 💷
3. 54% of undervalued employees plan to move on in 2026 🚀
4. Are managers losing authority in today’s workplace? 🧭
5. UK government reviews proposal to apply EU AI laws in Northern Ireland 🤖

In other news................have you seen our NEW Skill Builder for HR series? Hub members will receive 2 free Skill Builder places as part of their subscription (worth £270!) Find out what's on offer HERE.

1. Case Law Reviews
2. AI and Employment Law
3. Budget
4. Minister reaffirms support for victims and survivors of domestic abuse
5. Northern Ireland Labour Market Statistics: Good Jobs in Northern Ireland 2025
6. Over half of undervalued UK workers plan to quit in 2026
7. Supermarket workers say unequal pay driving female staff to food banks
8. The quiet revolution: how flexible working has gone from perk to strategic priority
9. Office Christmas parties linked to 40 tribunals a year, analysis finds
10. Just in Case You Missed It...
11. HR Developments
12. Employment News in the Media
13. GB Developments
14. Health & Safety Developments
15. Free Webinars This Month

Rice v Wicked Vision Ltd; Barton Turns Developments Ltd v Treadwell [2025] EWCA Civ 1466

Summary Description: 

Court of Appeal felt a different interpretation should be allowed to bar dismissal as detriment claims for whistleblowers yet felt bound by previous Court of Appeal judgment in the area.

Claimant: 

Ian Rice
Treadwell

Respondent: 

Wicket Vision Ltd
Barton Turns Developments Ltd

Practical Guidance for Employers:

This case is probably best described as being legally technical with it resting upon differing interpretations of the same legislation.  It does showcase the workings of precedent within our common law system, though, with the effect that the decisions of the Court of Appeal will bind the future Court of Appeal and that it will rest with the Supreme Court to overturn those settled decisions of the Court of Appeal.   This has led to an unsatisfactory turn of events in the interpretation relating to whether the detriment can be the dismissal – the Court of Appeal here clearly felt that it could not but had to find that it did.

Read the Review in full: Rice v Wicked Vision Ltd; Barton Turns Developments Ltd v Treadwell [2025]

Moles v Southern Health and Social Care Trust [2025] NIIT 2670/24

Summary Description: 

Decision to dismiss on grounds of capability regarded as fair when the disabled claimant had been absent from work for 35 months with no prospect of a return.

Claimant: 

Julie Moles

Respondent: 

Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Practical Guidance for Employers:

This case tackles the thorny issue of long-term absence coupled with an employee being disabled.  This cuts across many aspects such as making reasonable adjustments, when there should be occupational health referrals and following the policy relating to absence management and the possibility of dismissal.  The approach taken by the respondent was found to be flexible for the claimant but considering the reports from occupational health and the input from the claimant there was no timescale for the claimant to return to work. As a result, in following the policy, the respondent could make the decision to dismiss on the grounds of capability.

Read the Review in full: Moles v Southern Health and Social Care Trust [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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UK government ‘assessing proposal’ for EU AI laws to be implement in Northern Ireland

The UK government is continuing to work with EU representatives over proposals that Europe’s new artificial intelligence laws should apply in Northern Ireland. First introduced last year, the EU AI Act puts enshrines the legal status of certain forms of AI – particularly systems considered to be high risk. Firms supplying these tools into EU markers now face requirements regarding governance and risk management, transparency, and human oversight, as well as maintaining standards of performance and accuracy. Public Technology has more on this story.

AI for HR Weekly Podcast with Barry Phillips 🎙️

This week's episode: Annual Review AI Keynote– Six Takeaways

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

Listen on all major platforms: 🎧 Spotify🎧 Amazon Music 🎧 Apple Podcasts

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

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The BBC reported on what has been announced:

Personal Taxation

• National Insurance (NI) and income tax thresholds frozen for extra three years beyond 2028, dragging more people into higher bands over time
• Amount under-65s can put into cash Isas (Individual Savings Accounts) capped at £12,000 a year from April 2027, with the rest of the £20,000 annual allowance reserved for investments
• 2 percentage point rise to the ordinary and upper tax rates on dividend income from April, and all rates on savings income from April 2027
  

Wages, Benefits & Pensions

• Cap limiting households on universal or child tax credit from receiving payments for a third or subsequent child to be scrapped from April
• Legal minimum wage for over-21s to rise 4.1% in April, from £12.21 to £12.71 per hour, with the wage for 18 to 20-year-olds rising from £10 to £10.85
• Basic and new state pension payments to go up by 4.8% from April, more than the current rate of inflation, under the "triple lock" policy
• Amount people can "sacrifice" from their salary - thereby avoiding NI on pension contributions - capped at £2,000 a year from 2029
• Help to Save scheme, which offers people on universal credit a bonus on savings, extended and expanded beyond 2027

More HERE.

And here are some of the responses…

Has Rachel Reeves made the right calls in this budget? The Guardian’s panel responds.

Find out more here.

Budget 2025: Departments told to find extra £4.9bn in efficiencies

Departments have been asked to find an extra £4.9bn in efficiency savings from 2028 onwards, and will need to outline plans for these savings at the next spending review. In this week's Budget speech chancellor Rachel Reeves said government would find £4.9bn efficiencies by 2031. Catch up.

'We work hard, you want to get the best out of it' - Budget minimum wage rise welcomed

A group of students in Newry are among millions of people who are set to benefit from a pay rise, due to an increase in the minimum wage. In Wednesday's Autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said 2.7 million people will benefit from the increases, which will take effect from April 2026. Find out more. 

Hospitality bosses hit out at above inflation hikes in minimum wage next year

Embattled hospitality bosses today hit out at another round of above-inflation minimum wage increases coming into force for 2.4 million workers in April. The steep increase in the rate for younger workers falls particularly heavily on pubs and restaurants who depend on students and younger workers to serve as bar staff, waiters and kitchen porters. Trade body UKHospitality said the wage increases loaded an extra £1.4 billion in additional costs on the industry already suffering a bigger jobs shake out than any other sector. More from Yahoo Finance.

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Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald has re-emphasised her commitment to providing support to workers who are victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Minister confirmed her intention to have legislation to implement the provisions in the Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Act (NI) 2022 in place before the end of the Assembly mandate. This legislation will create a new employment right for victims of domestic abuse to access at least 10 days paid leave for the purpose of dealing with issues related to the domestic abuse. Read more here.

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Good Jobs in Northern Ireland 2025 was published by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA). 

Key findings include:

• The rate of good jobs in Northern Ireland stood at 69.0% in 2025, marking a 1.9 percentage point (pps) drop from its peak in 2022.
  
• Belfast has the highest proportion of good jobs in Northern Ireland, with nearly three-quarters of all jobs in the city classified as good (74.8%). In contrast, the Causeway Coast and Glens area has the lowest proportion of good jobs, with just over half of jobs meeting the criteria (58.6%).
  
• People in the 40-49 age group have the highest proportion of good jobs, with 80.0% employed in such positions.
  

You can find out more.

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Pressat reveals The UK is on the brink of a workplace Value Exodus, with new research revealing that 54% of undervalued employees are planning to seek new opportunities in 2026. This crisis of undervaluation is sweeping through UK workplaces; with devastating consequences for retention, productivity and wellbeing according to the report commissioned by global employee benefits platform Perkbox.

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Pay inequality is harming female retailer workers’ mental health, limiting financial stability and leaving them feeling undervalued compared with male colleagues, according to a new survey from equal pay law firm Leigh Day. More from the Retail Gazette.

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Back in 2020, just 2 in 10 staff working at ‘best practice’ Benchmark employers worked flexibly. Just half a decade later, 71% of organisations say more than three-quarters of their workforce are working flexibly. The Benchmark report from Working Families, however, highlights there is still some way to go before the benefits of flexible working can claim to be universal.

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As office Christmas party season approaches, HR must ensure that any festive celebrations do not create unnecessary employment tribunal risks. Seasonal celebrations are a common source of workplace conflict, according to analysis of employment tribunal decisions by benefits platform YuLife. Since 2017, 322 tribunal claims referenced incidents at Christmas parties, representing an average of 40 cases every festive season. More from People Management.

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Unwrapping Vicarious Liability at the Christmas Party

The Christmas Party should be a chance to celebrate, not litigate. Niall McMullan from Edwards Solicitors provides guidance on how to keep your festivities on track.

Stop Planning, Start Diagnosing: Why Most 2026 People Strategies Miss the Point

As organisations move into their 2026 planning cycles, the familiar rhythm begins: leaders gather their priorities, departments draft ambitious action lists, and HR teams start building out the People Plan. It all looks productive on the surface, but there’s a quiet truth many businesses overlook - most People Plans aren’t really strategic. They are activity lists. Neatly organised, sometimes beautifully designed, but still fundamentally just collections of HR tasks. And while they might demonstrate busyness, they rarely move the organisation forward. Katie Fox at MCS Recruitment has more. 

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Employee wellbeing: Five trends workplaces won’t be able to ignore in 2026

From managing shifting organisational values through to needing to support employee wellbeing ‘grey zones’, employers – and HR – will have their work cut out next year, argues Chris Britton. According to our latest report Workplace Wellbeing: A Business Imperative, 44% of employees say poor wellbeing significantly impacts their productivity. Read more. 

And find the report HERE.

Hybrid working has the potential to be the 'best of both worlds’ says House of Lords report with insights from LSE academics

Remote work is now a UK “new normal,” with nearly 40% of adults working from home at least part time. A House of Lords report finds flexible work boosts productivity in knowledge intensive regions and could expand access to jobs for those otherwise excluded. You can read more from The London School of Economics and Political Science.

HR Must Help Leaders Routinize Change to Bolster Adoption

This report from Gartner HR Leaders Magazine highlights how CHROs can avoid missteps in adjusting their organization's approach to change, as well as how CHROs can support CEO's other top priorities. Most leaders unsuccessfully try to inspire change adoption by painting a vision of a better future. To reap the benefits of change adoption, CHROs — the key facilitators of change — must encourage leaders to routinize change instead, making it second nature for employees to adopt frequent changes. You can download the latest Gartner report here.

Online safety when building your professional profile

Laura Thomson-Staveley explains why women need to balance living a public life with personal security in this article for People Management.

Are managers increasingly lacking authority at work?

A survey of over 500 UK line managers, commissioned by Breathe HR, found that while line managers are tasked with responsibility, they often lack authentic power and authority within their organisation. This phenomenon, which experts are calling the “authority gap”, might include lacking the power to influence and make key decisions autonomously, control budgets, and shape team objectives, despite having a managerial role. HR Director has more.

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A non-legal tribunal member is not a ‘worker’ and therefore not entitled to holiday pay, an employment tribunal has found. Mrs P Varley, as she is referred to in the employment tribunal judgment, brought a claim against the secretary of state for justice that she not been paid for holiday that she has taken since October 1998. Varley served as a non-legal member of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal, and its predecessors, since 1998. Her current role is as a specialist member for the First-Tier tribunal (special educational needs and disability) where she sits on panels with a judge and one or two specialist members. More from the Law Gazette. 

The Irish school teacher Enoch Burke has been arrested and brought to Mountjoy Prison on foot of an order issued by the High Court last week, which directed his imprisonment for contempt of court. During that hearing in Dublin, Mr Justice Cregan said that Mr Burke and members of his family had engaged in a "deliberate, sustained and concerted attack" on the authority of the civil courts and the rule of law. He has been attending at Wilson's Hospital School, from which he was previously dismissed for gross misconduct, since it reopened after the summer holidays. More from the BBC. 

A West London council employee secretly working a second job for the Government resigned after apparently catching wind of a fraud investigation into their deceit. The case is one of several detailed in the council's latest Corporate Anti-Fraud Service (CAFS) Half-Year Progress Report. Previous findings include an employee caught doing private work after their council-branded van was spotted in Ealing to a staff member using their mum's Blue Badge to avoid parking fees. My London has more on this.

Some police officers in Northern Ireland worked more than 2,000 hours of overtime, according to data obtained by BBC News NI through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The data, which covers the 2024-25 financial year, shows that one sergeant worked 2,177 hours of overtime, earning more than £51,000, the BBC reports. 

An employment appeal tribunal has found that a former ward manager at Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust was right to appeal an unfair dismissal following a disciplinary investigation. C O’Brien was employed as a ward manager. Concerns were raised by her colleagues that she had not been present on the ward at the start of certain shifts and that she had claimed overtime she had not worked on one occasion. Rather than raising this with her, O’Brien’s manager undertook fact finding and sought potential fraud advice. Employee Benefits has more.  

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

Options for crackdown on non-compete clauses in GB published

The Department for Business and Trade has published a policy paper on options for reform of non-compete clauses in employment contracts and seeking views on five options for reform, including an outright ban. Under current England and Wales law, a non-compete clause – a type of restrictive covenant – is unenforceable unless the employer can demonstrate it is reasonable. A court assesses how reasonable the clause is, but only if a challenge is brought against its enforceability. There are currently few constraints on employers to include non-compete clauses in employment contracts, regardless of whether they are enforceable. More from Personnel Today. 

Government U-turns on day-one unfair dismissal rights in GB

The Westminster government will reduce the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from two years to six months, dropping Labour’s longstanding manifesto commitment in the Employment Rights Bill to make it a day-one right in England and Wales. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said it had convened a series of constructive conversations between trade unions and business representatives. The discussions concluded that reducing the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from 24 months to six months – while maintaining existing day-one protection against discrimination and automatically unfair grounds for dismissal – is a “workable package”. Read more.

Trans people could be questioned on looks, suggests leaked code 

Personnel Today reports a leak of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s yet-to-be-published guidance has sparked concerns that trans people could be asked about whether they should access single-sex spaces based on physical appearance and behaviour.

ACAS Early Conciliation period to be extended from 1st December 2025

Originally, the EC period was one month, with a possible 14-day extension if a settlement seemed likely. On 1 December 2020, this changed to six weeks, and extensions were removed. For any EC period starting on or after 1 December 2025, the EC period is 12 weeks. SE-Solicitors has more on this.

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ABC Council lends its support to HSENI campaign to tackle work-related ill health

There were 640,000 days lost estimated in 2023/24 due to work-related illnesses. As part of its year-long Workplace Health Campaign, HSENI is partnering with local councils to highlight occupational diseases that can arise out of workplace activities if hazards are not properly controlled. It focuses on cancers, chronic lung conditions, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and work-related mental wellbeing. More here.

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Employment Law at 11 is taking a well-earned break for November and December but don’t worry, we’ll be back in 2026, refreshed and ready to dive into more of the latest in employment law!

Enjoy your weekend!

Legal Island

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