Glasgow Employment Law Blog

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Chancellor Warns of Job Losses in Brexit

Chancellor, George Osborne has warned that more than 800,000 jobs could be at risk if the UK votes to leave the EU.

He warned that if the UK left the EU, the likelihood of a recession would significantly increase, which in turn , would lead to more than 820,000 jobs going. The latest warning comes after Treasury which analysed potential unemployment and decline in the overall value of property if the UK leaves the EU.

An increase in borrowing in the public sector would result in a number of redundancies and a recession could be triggered.

Speaking in the event of a “Leave” vote, Osborne stated that the punishment faced by the UK economy for an exit would be severe. In a statement he said: "With exactly one month to go until the referendum, the British people must ask themselves this question: can we knowingly vote for recession?

"And to those who say we should vote to leave, I'd say this: you might think the economic shock is a price worth paying. But it's not your wages that will be hit, it's not your livelihoods that will go, it's not you who will struggle to pay the bills.

"It's the working people of Britain who will pay the price if we leave the EU."

Factors such as the EU refusing to strike a deal with the EU after their exit would only intensify the situation according to those who gathered the figures.

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Working Fathers Receive Pay Rise According to Study

Research from the TUC and an independent think tank has found that worker fathers receive on average, a 21% pay rise during parenthood.

The study, which investigated more than 17,000 employees, found that full-time men who had children had a “21% wage bonus” by the time they were 42 years-old in comparison to men who did not have children at the same age. While the reasons for the rise are not known, the BBC stated that factors such as hours worked, increased efforts and positive discrimination. On average, fathers with children tended to work one hour more than those without a child.

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Scottish Employment at Record High Despite Warnings of Falling Standards

Figures from the Office of National Statistics have shown that employment in Scotland reached a record level between September and November

The latest data regarding employment in Scotland showed that there had been a substantial rise in the number of people in some sort of employment with 21,000 more Scots in work, compared with the previous quarter, bringing the total to 2,631,000.

Out of the four nations in the UK, Scotland has the highest employment rate with the employment rate in Scotland being 0.3% higher than the national average of 74.6%. Indeed, unemployment in the same period fell by 11,000, a rate of 0.7%.

Scotland's Fair Work Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: "I am very pleased to note this month's figures, which reinforce the positive longer-term trends in Scotland's labour market.

"Employment has continued to rise and unemployment to fall - with more Scots in work than ever before. Youth employment figures continue to be strong, outperforming the UK statistics.

"However, we are not complacent and we recognise that a number of significant challenges remain beneath these encouraging headline figures."

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New Zero Hour Contract Guidelines Introduced: Employment Issues in 2016

Employees now have the right to take employers to an employment tribunal if they are punished for breach of an exclusivity clause in their zero hour contract.

Under such contracts, staff members are not guaranteed any set hours meaning that their wage can vary from week to week, or they can be effectively frozen out of employment. While many companies opt to use zero-hour contracts, some also inserted an exclusivity clause meaning that they could fairly dismiss or prevent an employee from working for another organisation without consent.

Although such clauses have been banned since May 2015, the start of 2016 grants workers the powers to take legal action if they are still forced into such an agreement. The legislation gives workers working under a zero hours contract the right to complain to an employment tribunal where they are dismissed or suffer a detriment for working for another employer or asking their employer for permission to do so.

The government guidance reads: “An employer must allow the individual to take work elsewhere to earn an income if they do not offer sufficient hours.

“If an employer includes an exclusivity clause in a zero hours contract, the individual cannot be bound by it, the law states the individual can ignore it.

“An employer must not attempt to avoid the exclusivity ban by, for example, stipulating that the individual must seek their permission to look for or accept work elsewhere.”

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Gender Pay Gap Still Major Factor in the UK

A recent study has revealed that the gender pay gap has barely changed in the last four years despite many initiatives to try and reduce the pay gap.

The data which comes from HMRC showed that women made up less than a quarter, 27%, of all higher-rate taxpayers in each of the past four financial years. Last year, this meant women made up 1.21m of the 4.47m higher-rate taxpayers despite a rise of at least one million high-end taxpayers in the same period.

The survey is a blow to the government and organisations who have launched policies to try and reduce inequality in the workplace and obtain equal pay for women. Some banks have aimed to make their senior management team consist of at least 40% females following a study that showed that less than a third of the senior staff in the industry were female with HSBC adding that females were “significantly underrepresented at a senior management level.”

The Government have also launched a number of new plans to try and reduce gender inequality. It was announced in the summer that organisations with 250 employees or more were to publish the difference between the average pay of their male and female employees. These rules were to apply to all sectors and were also to include bonuses and other payments to all members of staff.

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Bullying in the Workplace on the Rise: ACAS

A new study from ACAS has revealed that bullying in the workplace has increased across the UK with more people than ever suffering harassment.

Alarmingly, the study showed that while bullying in the workplace was increasing, more people than ever were unwilling to report the bullying with job insecurity and other factors resulting in people being afraid to speak up.
 
ACAS reported that they had received more than 20,000 calls regarding workplace harassment and bullying with the organisation calling for companies to take such complaints much more seriously than they currently do.

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Uber Drivers File Action to Become Employees

Uber employees have taken legal action in an attempt to become employees of the controversial taxi company.

Currently under the contracts offered by Uber, those operating for Uber are self-employed contractors. However, an employee claim is seeking to change their status to employees of the company rather than such contractors. As a contractor, Uber were able to not have the same employment rights in place that other taxi companies had, thus leading competitors to claim that they had an advantage, especially regarding finances.

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Mike Ashley Loses Employment Tribunal Case

Former employees at clothes store USC after 50 members of staff were given less than 15 minutes notice about losing their job.

Mike Ashley has been criticised for using "disgraceful" and "unlawful" employment practices have all secured a protected redundancy from the firm, with the figure expected to be in the thousands for the vast majority. The firm now lies in the hands of administrators Duff and Phelps.

In total, 88 members of staff lost their job at the USC warehouse in Ayrshire which led to severe criticism of the USC’s parent company Sports Direct.

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Wage Loss Claims – Frequently Asked Questions

What is an unlawful deduction?

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The Process of Entering into a Settlement Agreement

Being approached by your employer about a settlement agreement can seem daunting – especially if you are unsure of the process of entering into such an agreement. This guide aims to give an overview of the settlement agreement process to help answer the all important question: what happens now?  

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Changes in Fathers Employment Rights to Attend Ante-natal Care

In effort to encourage the involvement of fathers with their children from the earliest possible stages, the Government has introduced increased access for them to attend their child’s ante-natal care. Effective from 1st October, fathers and partners will have the right to take unpaid time off work to attend two antenatal appointments.

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Changes in Fathers Employment Rights to Attend Ante-natal Care

In effort to encourage the involvement of fathers with their children from the earliest possible stages, the Government has introduced increased access for them to attend their child’s ante-natal care. Effective from 1st October, fathers and partners will have the right to take unpaid time off work to attend two antenatal appointments.

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Fee System for Employment Tribunals Failing

The Ministry of Justice published figures 11 September 2014, which give compelling evidence that the fee system for employment tribunals acts as a barrier to access to justice. 

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Government Consultation to Close Loopholes in Zero-hour Contract Proposals

Business Secretary Vince Cable has this week launched a consultation into how best to tackle the problem of zero hour contracts. Cable is asking businesses, unions and individuals to help highlight and close potential ‘loopholes’ in the governments plan to outlaw the use of exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts.

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UK companies struggling to engage employees

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

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Court of Appeal rules in disability case

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has welcomed a Court of Appeal ruling that an employer cannot 'simply rubber stamp' an opinion provided by occupational health advisors and must make its own judgment as to whether an employee is disabled.

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