In the case of Newcastle’s NHS v Haywood (2017) EWCA Civ 153 the question of when does notice of termination of a contract take effect was considered. The best practice is for express provision in a contract of employment to specify when notice will be effective. The alternatives are common law principles that need consideration and the question to be asked is, when does contractual notice take effect on, 1. Posting of a letter 2. Delivery of the letter or 3. Communication of the notice to the employee so they are aware of it?
Employment
Employment issues
Confidential Information – Damages
Where two employees of a large asset management firm were sued for £15 million for taking confidential information, but the employer’s only recovered £2 (nominal damages). The reason for this is that the employees had made no use of the confidential information. Therefore the employer had suffered no losses – Marathon v Seddon [2017] EWHC 300. This serves as a useful reminder to employers suing former
Immigration checks
Failure to carry out ‘right to work’ checks can result in civil liability of up to £20,000 per illegal employee/worker. Businesses should be aware of the potential immigration checks and the risks of being investigated by the immigration authorities
Employment Tribunals – online
Employment Tribunals are now online. The database includes judgements dating back to 2015 and 2016 and the web address link for the site is employment-tribunals-decisions
Dress code-religious and political
In the case of Achbita v G4S [2017] (CJEU, C-157/15), the ECJ has given guidance on the extent to which dress codes (whether formal or informal) can be imposed on those who want to wear religious or political signs. The guidance is that it will be potentially indirect discrimination unless the employer can objectively justify the dress code. … Read more
