Employment Law

It is traditionally the time where we all like to make resolutions to make ourselves better people by the end of the year. What about your business? As business owners we should consider what arrangements we currently have in place and how we could make them (even) better over the year as well as what challenges our businesses might face over the next 12 months. Here are 4 key areas which should be reviewed this edition:

1. Review your contracts of employment
   It is important to check that all of your employees have a signed contract of employment.

Is calling someone a “fat, ginger pikey” harassment under the Equality Act 2010? No concluded the Employment Appeal Tribunal in a somewhat surprising decision.

Background
In the case of Evans v Xactly, Mr Evans brought claims of discrimination and harassment on the grounds of his race and disability against his previous employer on the grounds that he had been called a “fat, ginger pikey” whilst at work. Mr Evans was employed as a sales representative at Xactly but was dismissed in under 12 months for failure to achieve his targets.

Sleeping on the job
In the recent case of Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake; Shannon v Rampersad the Court of Appeal considered whether care workers, who were contractually required to provide sleep in shifts as part of their work were entitled the national minimum wage (“NMW”) for these shifts.

The care workers were paid a fixed sum for the sleepover shift; Mrs Tomlinson-Blake was paid additional sums if called on during the night for more than an hour,