A monthly checklist from Atom Content Marketing highlighting new and pending laws, regulations, codes of practice and rulings that could have an impact on your business.
Employers should ensure they are aware of employees' and job applicants' disabilities, such as Asperger's, and consider which reasonable adjustments need to be made to their recruitment processes, or whether those processes can be justified - or risk an unlawful discrimination claim.
Charity trustees proposing to sell a property should have obtained a qualified surveyor's report and taken specialist advice on other ways to benefit from post-sale increases in value of the property, and failed in their duty to act in the charity's best interests by not doing so, a statutory inquiry has found.
Businesses considering applying for an injunction to stop another party from breaching an agreement should consider whether such a breach would be deliberate. If a breach would only be accidental or inadvertent, or if there would merely be a commercial advantage in breaching it, the injunction may well not be granted.
Businesses thinking of applying to register a trade mark should take into account that if another trade mark owner opposes the application on grounds the average consumer is likely to confuse the two marks, there may be more than one group of average consumers, each with a different perception of the marks, following a recent ruling.
Employers will welcome confirmation of the 'three-month rule' limiting how far back they must go when compensating employees for underpayments of holiday pay for past commission, overtime, etc, following a further holiday pay ruling.
Businesses collecting debts from individuals (including sole traders) in England and Wales face new rules from October 2017 which will make debt recovery more cumbersome.
Employers should ensure that policies affecting an employee with a protected characteristic, such as pregnancy, are not directly discriminatory provided they do not affect all such employees and/or other employees who do not share that protected characteristic.
Limited companies, LLPs and others subject to the 'persons with significant control' (PSC) regime are changing their procedures to comply with changes to the regime, and the rules regarding confirmation statements, announced by Companies House.
Businesses involved in disputes should think carefully not just about whether to take part in mediation, but the enthusiasm with which they do so, or risk being penalised by the court on costs, a ruling makes clear.
Employers should ensure non-compete and similar clauses in an employee's contract are reasonable in the circumstances; and consider any periods during which an employee is denied access to clients while still employed when assessing whether the duration is justified - or risk the clauses being unenforceable.
Disclaimer: This article from Atom Content Marketing is for general guidance only, for businesses in the United Kingdom governed by the laws of England. Atom Content Marketing, expert contributors and ICAEW (as distributor) disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions.
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