Glasgow Employment Law Blog

In a  new report, the Trade Union Congress (TUC), has stated that employment tribunal fees have been ‘a huge victory for Britain’s worst bosses’. The report published on 29 July, marks the first anniversary of the introduction of charges for employment tribunals.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held in a landmark case that employees are entitled to have overtime, shifts and commission included in holiday pay.  As a consequence, thousands of UK workers could be entitled to claim millions from their employers in backdated payments.

The rules relating to collective redundancies in the UK are to be clarified by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Summer is now well underway, meaning many UK employees will be enjoying a well deserved - and fully paid - break from work.

The Government has announced that it will soon be a requirement for employers who have lost sex discrimination cases to publish the results of an equal pay audit and make them available for all affected staff, under what will be called the Equality Act 2010 (Equal Pay Audits) Regulations 2014.

Job applicants are no longer required to disclose childhood or minor convictions after the Supreme court ruled the requirement to do so, violates human rights law.

Women are ending their maternity leave earlier than they would like to, according to a report from NCT, the UK's largest charity for parents.

Hiring intentions in the United Kingdom (UK) as a whole, are at their highest level since the recession, whilst Scotland's employment outlook is at a seven year high. Therefore, employers wishing to add to their workforce, must ensure that contracts of employment are properly drafted.

The Commission for Developing Scotland's Young Workforce, established by the Scottish Government and chaired by Sir Ian Wood, has published its final report, making 39 recommendations aimed at improving young people’s transition into employment.

The Jospeh Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has released a report examining how location influences employment outcomes for people from ethnic minorities.

April's Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs showed the Scottish labour market continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate than the previous month. The key findings of the report are as follows:

Latest estimates from the Office of National Statistics show that more people are getting jobs, with unemployment falling to its lowest level in over three years.

The key points of this month's Labout Market Statistics include:

From 30th June the right to request flexible working will extend to all employees who have been working continuously for 26 weeks.

Flexible working covers types of employment contract as well as places of work, enabling employees and employers to vary traditional working patterns. Examples of typical flexible working arrangements include job sharing, working from home and changing the hours or times of work.

Under the new employment rules, the right to request flexible working will be extended and the complex statutory procedure for dealing with requests replaced:

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published data estimating the number of people on zero-hours contracts to be around 1.4 million.

Following a survey of 5,000 employers, the results show that in January to February 2014 there were approximately 1.4 million employee contracts that didn't guarantee a minimum number of hours or pay. These zero-hours contracts (employment contracts in which an employer does not guarantee the individual any work and the individual is not obliged to accept any work offered) are currently being closely scrutinised because they do not safeguard workers.

The data shows that:

New laws, which came into effect earlier this month, now require anyone thinking of bringing an Employment Tribunal claim to first notify Acas through its Early Conciliation service.

Early Conciliation, introduced through new Regulations, will have to be followed by any body involved in a workplace dispute which may lead to an employment tribunal, such as:

Employee engagement has declined sharply in the UK, according to the global perspectives survey from market research firm ORC International.

New research from the CIPD has found that fears of intergenerational tensions within the workplace have been over-egged and that employers see clear benefits from an increasingly age diverse workforce.

The Government’s consultation on zero hours contracts has now closed, having received more than 30,000 responses.

The Government has approved a rise in the National Minimum Wage to £6.50 per hour later this year, with more than one million people set to see their pay rise by as much as £355 a year.

A ground-breaking report on the future of work has highlighted the dramatic changes the UK’s workers can expect to see in the next two decades.