Did you hear about the rather sticky situation that recently unfolded at Avanti West Coast, leaving a sour taste in the mouths of many? You may have...
    Porter Dodson Solicitors were pleased to be involved with the successful completion of an asset purchase agreement between David and Charles and...
    You may have read about the recent case involving Lloyds Bank and an employee who dropped the N-bomb at a training seminar. Would you automatically...
    Welcome to the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace! As technology continues to evolve, it's important to stay ahead of the curve and...
    Porter Dodson are delighted to have advised Unison Triumph Investments (UK) Limited on the recent acquisition of Hotel Riviera in Sidmouth –...
    Following a flurry of recent local business transactions, Porter Dodson are pleased to have advised Coombe Farm Retail, a provider of premium organic...
    Stop firefighting and start preventing fires
    Porter Dodson has further strengthened its employment law offering with the appointment of two new associates into the Employment Law Team, Sarah Cook
    When it comes to employment-related disputes, most employers immediately think about unfair dismissal. Thanks to the abolition of fees in July 2017,...
    Most people have heard of whistleblowing and associate it with sectors such as the NHS or care industry. However, the legislation applies to all...
    Not a day goes by at the moment without sexual harassment claims being splashed across the media. You might think that this is a problem reserved for...
    Let’s be frank, talking about mental health is an awkward process. Awkward for the sufferer and awkward for the listener. Take by way of comparison a...
    An estimated 57% of all working days lost to ill-health are due to stress, depression or anxiety *. Stress is the most common cause of long-term...
    Frustrating, isn’t it? As an employer, you naturally expect to be able to control things within the workplace but then some clever legal judgment...
    Football, they say, is a game of two halves. However, the concern has been that when it comes to recruitment, FA recruitment policy has been...
    Apprenticeships are like the ‘little black dress’ of the employment world; they never go out of fashion. Indeed, the Government is keen to create...
    The European Court decided that a self-employed window salesman, who successfully claimed worker status, was entitled to claim unpaid holiday pay for...
    As an employer, you may sometimes despair at the antics of your staff. If so, perhaps spare a thought for an Australian employer who was left with a...
    Following on from part one of our GDPR update - GDPR – What does it mean and is your business compliant? - below are some of the most significant...
    The resignation of Michael Fallon last week from the role of Defence Secretary was notable in being the first resignation from a senior government...
    On 25th May 2018, a little over six months away, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force, replacing the Data Protection...
    Most employees who work for more than 6 hours are entitled to a rest break of 20 minutes, but what if your employees are too busy to take their...
    The Government’s Department of Health advises that one in four of us will experience mental ill health at some point in our lives.
    Under measures announced by the Government today, all parents in full-time and part-time employment would be entitled to two weeks' bereavement leave...
    The new corporate offences of failing to prevent the facilitation of UK and non-UK tax evasion create potential liability on employers for their...
    A recent case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has been big news in the past week and heralded by some as a victory for the employee in...
    The odds are you’ve reserved the right to suspend employees accused of misconduct whilst you investigate the allegations against them, either within...
    Life is complicated enough for employers. Any sensible business worries about its staff, its duty of care to staff and its compliance with a long...
    Employment Tribunals are currently consulting over increasing compensation for discrimination claims.
    The Supreme Court has confirmed that Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal fees are unlawful and will be quashed.
    The recent case of Chesterton Global Limited -v- Nurmohamed 2017 has allowed for the first time the Court of Appeal to consider what it means for a...
    You may have heard about the recent case of Ali v Capita Customer Management Limited - a case which found that a new father had been directly...
    In the long-running case of Fulton & anor v Bear Scotland Ltd, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that in claims involving ongoing unlawful...
    It’s not uncommon. You’re busy and trying to multi-task and accidentally hit ‘reply all’ or ‘forward’ when you shouldn’t. Before you know it, your...
    The recent case of The Government Legal Services (GLS) v Brookes has highlighted the need for employers to exercise caution when using selection...
    The recent case of Bandara v British Broadcasting Corporation (2016) highlights the need to think carefully when issuing disciplinary sanctions, not...
    The case of a Pimlico plumber who has questioned his precise employment status examines the entitlement of individuals working in an increasingly...
    The recent case of Stratford v Auto Trail VR Limited suggests that in some circumstances, you can.
    Nothing sparks more debate than when the Ministry of Justice falls foul of the law over which it presides.
    A recent case acts as a timely reminder to employers that they may be held responsible for the improper behaviour of their staff at work social...
    In October 2015, several drivers submitted claims against taxi company, Uber, claiming that they are workers and should, therefore, be entitled to...
    Following the landmark result of the referendum, interested parties may be inclined to capitalise or speculate on what comes next, but the immediate...
    Employees who take customer or client information when they leave their job might want to reconsider their actions following a recent warning from...
    Our television screens will soon be ablaze with some of the biggest events of the sporting calendar – the 2016 UEFA football European Championships...
    When advising our clients about various disciplinary and performance issues, one of our first queries is likely to be about the employee’s terms of...
    The Employment Tribunal has ruled that an employee at Starbucks was discriminated against on the ground of disability as a result of dyslexia. This...
    Judges from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have ruled that employers can read workers’ private messages sent via chat software and webmail...
    A well-known football player, in his mid 30s, has won a High Court ruling for a review of the child maintenance payments he had been ordered to pay...
    It is becoming increasingly common for employees not to have a fixed place of work. Many sales agents and home-based workers spend their time on the...
    Numerous employment law changes came into force today as a result of the Deregulation Act 2015. Key changes include:
    The average manager spends 20 working days each year dealing with absence issues; that’s one month out of twelve or just over 8% of working time. It...
    Most of us can say that at some point we’ve had a complaint about goods or services, relating to things such as retail companies, home improvement or...
    In the recent case of The British Waterways Board v Smith, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that Mr Smith was fairly dismissed because of...
    The Government is consulting on the tax treatment of payments made to employees upon termination of their employment.
    In addition to the current legislation regarding the calculation of holiday pay, there have been a number of recent court judgments on the topic.
    Employers who do not guarantee staff any hours of work and prevent them from working for another employer will no longer be able to enforce such...
    Today, a judge in Northern Ireland has handed down an eagerly awaited judgment in relation to a row over a message supporting gay marriage to be iced...
    Over the last couple of weeks, we have fielded numerous calls and emails from worried business owners in respect of the emerging position over...
    The National Minimum Wage (NMW) is the minimum hourly rate of pay that the majority of workers should be paid.
    The European Court of Justice (the ECJ) has ruled in the case of Kaltoft v Municipality of Billund (Case C-354/13) that obesity can constitute a...
    We recently commented on the UK Employment Appeal Tribunal case of Bear Scotland v Fulton (“the EAT case”) which ruled that holiday pay should also...
    The Shared Parental Leave Regulations (“SPL Regulations”) provide parents with a new legal right that will allow them to share caring...
    [This post was last updated in December 2017]
    Today’s ruling in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that holiday pay should include overtime pay. This overturns the UK’s previous...
    Since 1 October 2014, fathers and partners of an expectant mother are entitled to take unpaid time off work to accompany the expectant mother to...
    If an Employment Tribunal member is apparently asleep for 15 – 20 seconds during a hearing and is observed drooling (though presumably drooling isn’t...
    At the TUC Congress today, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna says he will abolish the current Employment Tribunal system. The clear message is...
    The BBC has today reported on pressure to outlaw discrimination against employees on the grounds of tattoos. “Body art” is enjoying record levels of...
    The European Court of Justice (ECJ), in the case of British Gas v Lock, has held that holiday pay should not be limited to basic salary when the...
    In the landmark ruling of Clyde & Co v Bates van Winkelhof the Supreme Court has confirmed that a member of a limited liability partnership (LLP) is...
    On Tuesday 6th May 2014 would-be claimants in the Employment Tribunal will first have to make contact with the arbitration service ACAS. This allows...
    Obesity in the UK is a growing epidemic. The UK is the tenth fattest country in the world and one of the fattest in Europe with levels of obesity...
    As of 6 April 2014, it is no longer possible for an employer to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from its national insurance contribution. This is as...
    The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, or TUPE, protects employees when they transfer from one employer to another...
    Calculation of Holiday Pay should include Commission and Over-time: Recent cases of Neal v Freightliner Ltd ET/1315342/12 and Lock v British Gas...