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Nottingham City Council faces a huge pay out to its staff after imposing an unlawful freeze on wages. The Court of Appeal ruled that the Council could not rely on the defence that the workers had implicitly agreed to a variation to their employment contract and waived any breach by continuing to work for two years after the pay freeze.

Suspension of a professional without considering the evidence of wrongdoing, and alternatives to suspension, is likely to be unlawful, a top court has ruled.

In Tanveer v East London Bus and Coach Company Limited, the EAT has held that the “corresponding date” rule set down by the House of Lords (as it then was) in Dodds v Walker applies when calculating the extension of time given to a prospective Claimant under the early conciliation rules. On the facts of the case, where the Claimant received the certificate on the 30th June the extension of time under Section 207B (4) of the Employment Rights Act meant that the claim had to be presented by the 30th July. The chronology was as follows:-

Many employers now have a policy which makes it clear that drinking alcohol at work, or being under the influence at work is an act of gross misconduct. The test for a ‘fair’ dismissal is that, following a fair investigation, the employer reasonably believes that misconduct has occurred, and dismissal is a reasonable sanction.

Employers tend to assume that discretionary payments are, well, discretionary. What some employers do not realise is that it may be possible for discretionary payments to become implied into an employee’s contract by way...

The recent case of Newbury v Sun Microsystems highlights the need for employers to set out offers in clear terms when negotiating a settlement.