Welcome to the last Mark’s Monthly of 2016. Is it too early to say “Happy Christmas”? It probably is but with the first doors of the advent calendars having been opened and the school nativity play having already taken place, we’re feeling rather festive already in the Mason house.
In this last article of 2016, I’m going to briefly look back on a year in the life of Mark Mason Employment Law and offer a glimpse of a new area of focus for us for 2017. Don’t worry those of you who are anxious for your monthly employment law update – that follows later!
Undoubtedly the most significant development for our business this year was Sharon coming on board. Sharon has proved to be a great addition as many of you will be aware from the great advice that she has given to you over the last year. For me it has been a great asset to have a colleague to discuss issues with and seek a second opinion from. From a client’s perspective, having a second lawyer to contact has (I hope) led to even easier and quicker access to advice. When one of us is in Tribunal or in a meeting the other is usually free to provide assistance to clients calling or emailing with queries.
We have continued to grow our portfolio of clients retaining our services, including by adding several more clients in Great Britain. We aim to further grow our client base throughout the UK and Ireland in 2017. As well as adding new clients in 2016, we have been delighted to continue to work with clients with whom we have been working for some considerable time. The business has been established since the summer of 2012 so some of our clients have now been with us for over 4 years. We are always grateful to clients for their continued loyalty and consider it a privilege to have a role within their organisations as trusted advisors.
We delivered some employment law training sessions this year – both in-house for clients with specific training needs and at events that we have hosted. Sharon and I both enjoy delivering training and have had positive feedback from delegates so we’ve decided to focus on this as an area for growth in 2017. We plan to host at least five half-day interactive training workshops next year, starting on 1st February with “Employment Law Essentials” – a practical course outlining the absolute “must dos” and “must not dos” of employment law. Look out for further details coming very soon.
As well as delivering training at events hosted by us, we will be offering bespoke in-house training for clients in their premises on a variety of employment law issues. You’ll be hearing more from us in relation to our training programme in due course so watch this space…
But enough about us. “Give us some juicy employment law gossip” I hear you cry through cyberspace. Well, ok then – since it’s nearly the end of the year, we’ll take a brief look at some of the ‘highlights’ of 2016 and consider what’s to come next year.
2016 was a relatively quiet year for employment legislation. The new National Living Wage for over 25s came into force in April and then the minimum wage for the under 25s was increased in October. We expect that, in due course, all increases will take place in April each year. The annual increase in limits for calculating various awards in tribunals and calculating redundancy pay took place as normal. In Northern Ireland, a week’s pay is now capped at £500 (£479 in GB) and the maximum compensatory award in an unfair dismissal claim is now £79,100 (£78,962 in GB – or one year’s gross salary, whichever is the lower).
In Northern Ireland, The Employment Act (NI) 2016 was enacted. Most of the provisions haven’t come into effect yet so look out for more from us in 2017 to keep you in the loop. The legislation will see the introduction of the system of early conciliation via the Labour Relations Agency, meaning that all Claimants must first contact the Labour Relations Agency in an effort to resolve their case before issuing Tribunal proceedings. The legislation will also bring reforms regarding the industrial and fair employment tribunal rules that will probably only be of interest to employment lawyers. There is also the possibility of future provisions regarding the use of zero hours contracts, provisions to be made regarding gender pay gap reporting for Summer 2017 and other matters regarding responsibility for career guidance and apprenticeships
There were a variety of interesting cases in 2016. Two that stand out are the long running case of Lock v British Gas as well as Aslam & others v Uber. In Lock, the Court of Appeal concluded that holiday pay must include compensation for any results-based commission that would ordinarily be earned. We have known for some time that this was the direction that we were heading and the Court of Appeal confirmed it. We’re finding that there is still some uncertainty when we speak to clients around how commission and overtime should be taken into account when paying holiday pay so please seek advice from us if you haven’t already done so.
In Uber, an Employment Tribunal found that drivers that had been catergorised by the company as self-employed were in fact ‘workers’ and so had certain employment rights, including the right to the National Minimum / Living Wage and the right to paid holidays. The company has said it will appeal and we will keep you up to date with this important case in 2017.
Thanks for your interest in these articles this year. We look forward to continuing to being in contact with you next year and if at any stage we can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Finally, as this is the last article of the year, I would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and a great 2017. Enjoy the celebrations – just remember that the office Christmas party is an extension of the workplace! We don’t want to be defending any harassment claims in January so perhaps you should gently remind employees of their responsibilities at the work Christmas party, without pouring too much cold water on the festivities!
Mark
