A woman has been awarded £15,250 compensation after hot tea was spilt on her in a restaurant. The 21-year-old Chinese university student had visited the restaurant with some of her classmates. A waiter was carrying a tray of hot tea when he was knocked by another member of staff. Some of the tea spilt on
A teaching assistant who was sacked because she wanted to remain in contact with her sex offender son has been awarded £28,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal. Tracy Hodgkinson’s son was jailed in May 2010 for sexual offences with a girl under 14. He was 18 at the time. Ms Hodgkinson says she was dismissed
An insurance firm has been granted an injunction preventing a former employee from revealing some of its valuable and confidential information. The court heard that the employee had been unhappy at the firm for some time before she finally handed in her notice. During her employment she had sent confidential documents to her personal email
The Ministry of Justice has announced that Employment Tribunal fees will be introduced on 29 July this year. From that date, subject to the necessary Parliamentary approval, employees wishing to bring a claim to a tribunal will have to pay fees on a sliding scale depending on the nature of the claim and the number
Non-competition covenants can be a helpful way to protect your business by restricting an employee’s ability to set up a rival company and poach some of your customers. They have to be drawn up with great care, however: if the restrictions are not tight enough they may not be effective; but if they are too
The Government has amended company law in an attempt to increase the number of firms offering direct employee ownership schemes. UK employee owned companies have a turnover of £30bn a year and employ more than 130,000 people. Ministers say these firms are more productive, profitable and more resilient to economic shocks than other businesses. The
Employment minister Jo Swinson has referred 100 companies to HM Revenue & Customs for allegedly breaching minimum wage regulations by employing unpaid interns. Internships, which encourage young people to work for nothing to gain experience, have become more common in recent years but they remain controversial. Ms Swinson was given the names of the 100
The Government has made significant concessions on its ‘shares for employment rights’ scheme in order to get it through the House of Lords. The scheme, in which employees give up some employment rights in return for shares in the company they work for, has met with strong opposition from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The new National Minimum Wage rates include an increase for apprentices. The Low Pay Commission (LPC) had recommended that the rate for apprentices should be frozen following concerns about compliance, but the Government has decided to go ahead and increase it. Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “The independent Low Pay Commission plays a crucial role
The Government has announced new measures designed to simplify and improve the employment tribunal system. The move follows concerns from employers that tribunal cases are both expensive and time-consuming for them. The proposals include: new strike out powers to ensure that weak cases that should not proceed to full hearing are halted at the earliest