November 2018 Newsletter

It’s November and as the heat from the bonfires fade and the cold sets in, we hope to keep your interest in HR/employment law warm; we have news on this year’s budget implications for HR, parental bereavement leave and ACAS guidance on performance management.

In our case update this month we update you on when calling someone a “fat, ginger, pikey” may not constitute harassment, when an individual may be liable for whistleblowing, and what an employer needs to do if it wants to maintain a policy that  workers may not carry over their statutory holiday entitlement to the next year.

Our November update

It was lovely seeing so many faces at our November Employment Law Update in Bristol recently. Thank you to those attending and for your lovely feedback on our topics. We were delighted to introduce Tamsin to you and to hear her fascinating talk on sexual harassment. We all got hands on during our discussions as to what might constitute sexual harassment and some of us were surprised to hear what the ‘peach’ and ‘aubergine’ emojis are being used for!  Overall the venue (Bristol Cricket Ground) got a thumbs up. It is accessible with a big car park but we will try to do something about those noisy fridges if we are there again in March.

Pensions support

Q: What could you possibly want to add to a bunch of lovely employment lawyers?

A: Pensions lawyers… obviously! 

It may be difficult to hype up the somewhat soporific subject of Pensions, but we hope we have caught your attention for a few milliseconds.  While we’ve still got you, let us just mention that quite a few aspects of TUPE and mergers & acquisitions can involve pensions law issues going hand-in-hand with employment law questions.  And pensions law is definitely not an area for a mere employment lawyer to want to dabble in.

So to avoid any oversights and mishaps, and to ensure that you get the best – and the fullest – advice, we have teamed up with some of the region’s best pensions lawyers to provide you with all the advice and support around any pension scheme you may find yourselves involved with.

Our Pensions advice services include:

• Pension schemes – setting up, administering, closing down
• Final salary schemes, TPS and LGPS
• Auto-enrolment
• Restructures, mergers and acquisitions
• Due diligence and transactional support
• Pensions issues in an employee/executive exit
• Pension-related litigation and disputes

If you’d like to discuss anything to do with Pensions, please contact Victoria Thorne.

 

Government reforms

• Government reforms (1): Budget 2018
• Government reforms (2): Parental bereavement leave

ACAS guidance

• ACAS guidance: Performance management

Case updates

• Case update (1): Harassment at work
• Case update (2): Whistleblowing – can an individual be liable?
• Case update (3): Holiday pay – carry over made easy