The Rugby World Cup (RWC) is in full flow, and with the festivities comes a maul of HR headaches. Click through here to read our short guide on things to look out for in the 48 matches leading up to the final this Halloween!

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently decided that it was fair to dismiss an employee that made derogatory comments about his employer on Facebook. It did not matter that the misconduct had taken place two years before dismissal or that the employer had been aware of the misconduct throughout that period.

Click here to read more.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently decided that the Working Time Directive does not require workers on sick leave to demonstrate that they are physically unable to take annual leave in order to carry over accrued unused statutory holiday to a subsequent leave year. It is sufficient that they are absent on sick leave and do not choose to take annual leave during that period.

However, the EAT also decided that the right to carry over leave is not unlimited. Having regard to a European case workers on sick leave can only take annual leave within a period of 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it accrues.

Click here to read more.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has allowed an appeal against the decision of an employment judge that an employee had been fairly dismissed in circumstances where the investigating officer's recommendations had been heavily influenced by input from Human Resources.

The investigating officer's report originally recommended a finding of misconduct and a sanction of a written warning, but after numerous comments and amendments by HR, the final report found the employee to have committed gross misconduct, and recommended immediate dismissal. The employment judge had failed to consider that the role of HR in this case had breached guidelines. In particular, HR's advice should be limited essentially to matters of law and procedure, as opposed to questions of culpability, which are reserved for the investigating officer.

Click here to read more.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has recently ruled that time spent travelling to and from first and last calls (for workers who do not have a fixed office) will be classed as ‘working time’.

Click here to read more.

Following on from the Employment Appeal Tribunal's refusal to strike out a claim of caste discrimination (see our previous article) an employment tribunal has now handed down its judgment. The claimant was successful in all her claims, which included unlawful deductions of wages, unfair dismissal, race discrimination, religious discrimination and breaches of the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Click here to read more.

We are once again holding our annual Employment Law update, and a series of How To…..workshops in both Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire across 2015 & 2016 (click on the link for more information).