We’d like to be able to pass comment on the delight of seeing the back of winter and rejoicing over the fact that Spring has sprung. Sadly, we can’t just yet – it’s distinctly wintry still - but we hope you had a good Easter break.
There’s been a lot going on at Pharos Legal in the last few months so we thought we’d update you about the issues we are seeing a lot of, some of our recent successes and also alert you to the usual raft of forthcoming changes.
Topical Employer Concerns
Some of the main issues we continue to see employers struggling with include:- When is a “discretionary” bonus not really discretionary?
- When is it possible to have a genuinely “off the record” (ie “without prejudice”) conversation with an employee?
- When can a role legitimately be said to be redundant?
- At what point does consultation need to start in respect of a potential redundancy?
- If we have a potentially redundant role, how do we correctly identify the “pool” of “at risk” individuals?
If any of these issues face your business, please get in touch. Spending the time to take advice on a proposed course of action could save you considerable sums of money later on.
Our Recent Successes
Amongst other things, we are proud to have:
- Settled a constructive unfair dismissal claim centring on allegations of failure to pay a bonus;
- Assisted employers in a variety of sectors in pursuing allegations of gross misconduct against employees;
- Settled a constructive unfair dismissal claim which was accompanied by claims of perceived disability discrimination, victimisation and age discrimination;
- Drafted shareholder agreements for a number of businesses of varying sizes and in different sectors;
- Helped individuals exit their employment with the benefit of better financial terms than those which were originally offered;
- Advised a law firm in the context of a potential TUPE transfer; and
- Helped an employee undermine his employer’s business case threatening to remove his role, such that his role was not made redundant.
Yet More Change...
The Government is continuing to keep us on our toes as regards the introduction of legislative change and consulting about new proposals.
April saw the usual bout of increases to certain statutory weekly rates of pay in addition to changes to collective consultation obligations – please click here for further details.
The new national minimum wage rates for October 2013 have been announced – please click here for further information.
Despite widespread criticism the Government seems determined to press ahead with the idea of employees swapping certain rights in exchange for shares in their employer, with a view to the new “employee shareholder” status coming into effect in October – please click here for further information
It’s all about you…
We hope you find our Beacons informative and useful and would welcome your feedback. Equally, if there is a topic that you’d like us to cover in a future edition, please get in touch – we’d be happy to help.
