Employment Law Latest

Essential for HR and people managers, this part of the seminar will focus on critical employment law updates, including new and important legislation, Government reforms and emerging case law, with ample opportunity for questions and discussion.  

Key topics for this year will include:

1. Changes to the calculation of holiday pay for part-year workers

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court has ruled that workers that work for part of the year i.e. part-time workers on variable hours, are entitled to the same holiday pay as colleagues working all year. We will look at the implications of this decision going forward. 

2. Changes to the fit note 

The change to a new digital version and how fit notes can now be issued by a broader category of healthcare professionals. We will look at all the details.

3. Fire and Rehire

In a previous High Court judgment, Tesco was prevented from dismissing a number of staff at its distribution centres and were seeking to re-engage them on less favourable contracts. However, this ruling has now been reversed by the Court of Appeal. We will analyse the implications of the ruling on all organisations.  

4. Business Immigration

All nationals from outside the UK and Ireland looking to work in the UK who are not eligible to apply under the EU Settlement Scheme and do not have an alternative route of entry will need to obtain a visa under the Points-Based System (PBS). We will look at the main immigration routes under this system. 

5. Discrimination because of protected beliefs 

Following a recent case an Employment Appeal Tribunal held last year that gender critical beliefs held by the claimant were protected beliefs under the Equality Act. We will review this ruling and other recent high profile discrimination cases.

6. Is Long Covid a disability under the Equality Act 2010?

A tribunal recently held that an employee with long covid symptoms was disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. We will look at the impact this may have on organisations moving forward.  

7. Neonatal Leave Bill

The government have approved a law offering paid neonatal leave for parents of babies who require additional care after birth. The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill still needs to be approved by the House of Lords but could be introduced in 2024 or 2025. We review all the details. 

8. Using agency workers during strikes

On 21^st July 2022 a ban on the provision of agency workers to perform the duties normally performed by a worker who was taking part in a strike or other industrial action, was lifted. We will assess the impact of these changes. 

9. Dress Codes 

In May 2022 Virgin Atlantic relaxed their tattoo policy for employees and now allow cabin crew to have their tattoos visible whilst representing the airline. Will this change encourage other organisations to follow the same route? We will look at in more detail. 

10. Other changes

An increase in the real Living Wage, the National Minimum Wage and Family Friendly Payment rates will also be confirmed and the implications discussed.

11. Cases and Appeals

We will assess how important emerging case law will influence HR procedures going forward.