The Supreme Court has today overturned the Court of Appeal’s ruling in Morrisons Supermarkets Plc v Various Claimants. The decision re-establishes that, when determining an employer’s vicarious liability, a key focus is whether the employee was pursuing their own, rather than their employer’s, objectives when doing the wrongful act. The test for rendering an employer … Read more

The Government has amended working time legislation with immediate effect to provide that the EU-derived 4 week statutory annual leave entitlement (which must normally be taken by the end of the leave year) can be carried over into the next two leave years where it was not reasonably practicable for the worker to take some … Read more

At the end of last week the HMRC published more details on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme announced on 20 March, available here.   Our detailed briefing available here sets out the key points from the new guidance and discusses some of the issues and unanswered questions that arise.  Of course the definitive position will only … Read more

All employers will clearly be concerned about the impact on their staff and business of the COVID-19 outbreak.  In addition to ensuring employees have a safe place to work, employers will need to facilitate remote working where possible and devise plans to deal with possible resourcing and supply chain issues, including considering the implications of … Read more

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Government Equalities Office and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have this morning suspended enforcement of the gender pay gap deadlines for this reporting year (2019/20). The decision means that there will be no expectation on employers to report their data.  See the announcement here. Read more

Employers are making decisions about adapting the way their workforces operate in the context of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. These are plainly circumstances without parallel or precedent, and so many businesses are relying on fundamental principles of risk management and business continuity planning, and attempting to apply them in this rapidly developing situation. The purpose … Read more

On 5 March 2020, the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) released its long-awaited report on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, “Respect@Work”. The report is the culmination of an 18-month inquiry, led by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. It is comprehensive and data-driven, and concludes (amongst other things) that the current legal framework is, in … Read more

Our Asia Employment, Pensions and Incentives update this month looks at: our live webinar that discussed the continued impact of COVID-19 across the region and some of the challenges faced by businesses and organisations; In Indonesia, the proposals outlined in the draft Omnibus Bill on Job Creation, including among other things, widespread changes to termination … Read more