HR Articles

British universities have called on the government to bring back the post study work visa which would allow overseas students to stay in the country to work for up to two years after graduation. The scheme was scrapped in 2012 and strict post study work rules may have had a significant impact on prospective applicants from certain countries, including India.

In North East London NHS Foundation Trust v Zhou, the EAT has decided that it may not necessarily be unreasonable conduct for solicitors to have filed an incomplete claim form.

In a recent High Court decision, the Court reaffirmed some important considerations when dealing with alleged breaches of contract by an employer.

The Government is facing judicial review proceedings over an exemption in the Data Protection Act 2018 that prevents citizens from accessing their immigration data. Two campaign groups, the Open Rights Group and the3million, have threatened legal action since the provision was introduced into the Data Protection Bill, and have now launched a legal challenge with the aim of seeing the provision removed from the statute.

A new YouGov survey of over 1800 people in the UK has found that only 6% are working the traditional working hours of 9am-5pm. 58% of those surveyed said they would like to start work earlier than 9am if it meant they could go home earlier.

Victimisation occurs when someone is subjected to a detriment because they have done (or it is believed they have or may do) a protected act. However, if the individual gives false information or makes a false allegation, their actions cannot amount to a protected act if these were also done in bad faith. If the information or allegation turns out to be false but was made in good faith it will still be protected.

As we blogged in June, individuals on zero hours contracts can bring claims for less favourable treatment of part-time workers by comparing to compare themselves to full-time workers even though they have different kinds of contracts. More recently, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) Judgment in Rice Shack Ltd v Obi was published.

In Talon Engineering Ltd v Smith, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (the ‘EAT’) held that an employer’s refusal to postpone a disciplinary hearing for two weeks to enable the Claimant’s union official to accompany her rendered the subsequent dismissal unfair. In this case, the Claimant faced disciplinary action for sending unprofessional emails.

In this recent case, the management of a school in Spain was sub-contracted out by the local authority. In the midst of a dispute the contractor dismissed all of the school’s staff on 27 March 2013.

As a general rule, a lawyer’s advice to their client is legally privileged. However, there is an exception to this, known as the iniquity exception, which applies when advice is given for the purpose of furthering a criminal or fraudulent design.