Football coach Bob Higgins has been found guilty of criminal abuse, but are his employers, Southampton FC also liable to his victims in a civil claim? The former youth football coach was found guilty of 45 counts of indecent assault recently and his conviction will allow a Football Association review into child sex abuse allegations…
It is illegal to make recruitment decisions based on gender, race, religion, age, disability, marriage status or sexual orientation unless the job reasonably requires that specific characteristic. Positive discrimination is the attempt to address under-representation from certain groups by encouraging applications from those groups and is particularly prevalent in the public sector. In a recent…
It’s very hard sometimes to keep up with all the legal implications of running a business. That’s why helping business owners with their contracts of employment and Statutory Sick Pay policies keeps me busy… So here’s a quick and brief summary for you on Statutory Sick Pay and who is entitled to it and when….
Clients often come to us having been handed a wad of paper, full of legal jargon, conspicuously titled “settlement agreement”. This can be an unnerving moment, even when it is expected. So, what is a settlement agreement? Put simply, a settlement agreement is an agreement between an employer and an employee to compromise an employee’s…
Jess Varnish v British Cycling and UK Sport The long running dispute between Jess Varnish and British Cycling/UK Sport is to be heard before Manchester Employment Tribunal next week, with Varnish having begun legal proceedings after claiming that she was dropped from the UK’s elite cycling programme after failing to qualify for the 2016 Rio…
The Supreme Court ruled that Ashers bakery’s refusal to make a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage was not discriminatory. The high-profile dispute began in 2014 when the bakery refused to make a cake with the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”. The customer, gay rights activist Gareth Lee, sued the company for discrimination on the…
Promises that are relied upon to their detriment by those to whom they are made are enforceable by the courts. In one case that demonstrated this point, a daughter of a farmer who worked long hours for low pay on her family farm, after her father assured her that she would have her reward in…
Settlement agreements are typically offered to employees when their employer wants to terminate their contract. Often this is due to redundancy but can also be offered if an employer thinks they are performing badly or believes there is misconduct. Usually an employee is given money in return for certain conditions, including not bringing a claim…
Are so called ‘casual’ staff entitled to the panoply of rights afforded to ‘workers’ by the Employment Rights Act 1996? A tribunal grappled with that vital issue in a case concerning a pipe fitter who found a temporary job through a recruitment agency. The man began working on a building site after answering an advertisement…
In general, social media can be an effective way to keep in touch with friends and family, however, when using social media to discuss work, even the most innocent postings can potentially have major consequences. A recent case reported by the media highlights the story of a care worker who was dismissed from her job…
