The New Zealand Court of Appeal has ruled on the standard for employers in justifying dismissal decisions, finding it requires an overall assessment of whether the decision was fair and reasonable in the circumstances. In A Ltd v H [2016] NZCA 419, the Court of Appeal found that the employer had acted fairly and reasonably … Read more

On 6 December 2016, a number of amendments to the Labor Standards Act (Act), relating to rest days, national holidays, annual leave, breaks between shifts, pay slips and whistle-blower protections, were passed by the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. The amendments also substantially increased the penalties for non-compliance with certain provisions of the Act. Read more

From 1 January 2017, employers will be required to notify the Ministry of Manpower of certain retrenchments. Employers should take note of this mandatory requirement, as currently the Tripartite Guidelines on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible  retrenchment only encourage employers to notify of any retrenchments. Read more

Employers should review their working arrangements to ensure they allow workers to take their statutory rest breaks. Rejecting earlier conflicting EAT authority, the EAT in Grange v Abellio took a purposive approach to the Working Time Regulations in ruling that a worker can bring a claim for denial of their right to a rest break, … Read more

Our July-August 2016 ebulletin highlighted HMRC proposals to change the taxation of termination payments from April 2018, and in particular to provide that all payments in respect of unworked notice be treated as earnings subject to income tax and employer and employee NICs (regardless of whether there is a contractual payment in lieu clause). The … Read more

The national minimum wage increases have been confirmed: the hourly rate for those aged 25 or over will be £7.50 from April 2017. The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that, from April 2017, statutory sick pay will increase to £89.35 per week and the flat rate statutory maternity/paternity/shared parental pay rate will be … Read more

The following new employment law-related resources have been published: Acas has published workplace guidance on marriage and civil partnership discrimination. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published a report on whether the law on religion and belief is working, generally concluding that it is and so not recommending legislative reform. However, it concluded that … Read more

Companies engaged in the 'gig economy' should be alive to the threat recent employment law developments could pose to their business model. Where the business involves the provision of a technology platform for a fee, allowing service-providers to offer their services at low cost to customers, this may only be commercially attractive if the service-providers … Read more