April is always marked as a busy time of the year for employment lawyers and HR professionals having to adjust the increased limits for awards.

Here are some examples of cases where employers have taken disciplinary action regarding an employee’s comments on social media about their employer. 

Ahead of the expected changes for employment law this year, we look back at the implications of the cases that took place in 2022, and what we can expect in 2023. 

You will have heard that P&O Ferries fired 800 staff with immediate effect in March 2022. Similarly, technology company Meta and social media giant Twitter have laid off thousands of staff in an attempt to significantly reduce costs.

It’s remarkable how often the title ‘director’ is used to describe someone’s position in a business. The title confers a sense of importance which is why it is often used but being a ‘real’ director brings with it a considerable degree of responsibility and potential liabilities, and if this was more widely understood there would be a greater reluctance to so casually use the title.

When advising employees about redundancy exits, it seems many employees are acting under the misconception that their contractual post-termination restrictions will not apply because their termination is by reason of redundancy. This is not correct, as the restrictions will apply even in redundancy terminations. It is worth noting, however, that the circumstances of 2020 may actually mean not all the restrictions are relevant even if they are still applicable.

As we slowly inch our way towards a brave new world post COVID-19 we set out below the employment law issues likely to face employers and employees in the coming months.

The government guidance has been continuously changing and this article is therefore inevitably a general exposition of key features of the scheme and specific advice should be sought in relation to the furloughing of employees.

The review, which was published on 4 November 2019, also concluded that despite the potential for minimum wages to have a negligible or zero effect on jobs, it significantly increases earnings of the lowest paid workers. Nicholas Lakeland, partner at Laytons, comments on the report, saying it will ‘frame the future remit of the Low Pay Commission… and future government policy’.

Employment lawyers and HR teams are well acquainted with the routine dance involved in the negotiation of settlement agreements. However, it is important to note that HMRC has decided to make some changes which will affect some of the steps taken when negotiating exit payments.