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.
Disclaimer: These publications from Atom Content Marketing are 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.
Employers should consider requiring job applicants to provide proof of the qualifications stated on their CVs, proportionate to the risks inherent in the job – for example, imposing stricter requirements where the role is senior and highly-paid and/or involves working with vulnerable people such as children - following a recent case in which an employee was convicted of fraud for lying on his CV.
Employers faced with an employee who has been charged with a criminal offence, but who has not yet gone to trial and been found guilty, should ensure they carry out their own investigations before dismissing the employee, to avoid an unfair dismissal claim.
Employers who recruit non-UK workers should consider the potential impact on their business of the government’s policy statement ‘The UK's points-based immigration system: policy statement’ setting out its proposed points-based immigration system for all non-UK workers, from both within and outside the EU, due to come into force from 1 January 2021.
Landlords and tenants of properties will welcome clarification from the court on the standard required under repairing obligations in leases. They should start planning and negotiating in good time before any obligation takes effect, to ensure that the repairs satisfy the requirements of the lease and are carried out in time.
Employers interviewing job applicants should keep comprehensive records explaining why they (accept or) reject them, and should not skirt around those reasons when communicating with applicants in an attempt to be polite, a recent legal ruling makes clear.
Employers taking on an employee should check whether the employee is subject to a restriction on working for them imposed by a previous employer, and consider the risks of being found to have induced the employee to breach those restrictions if they offer a job, following a recent legal ruling.
Employers should plan and budget for new rules from 6 April 2020 which say that an employee who is the parent of a child who dies before reaching 18, or who suffers a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, is entitled to parental bereavement leave.
Parties contemplating litigation funded by a commercial third party funder should consider whether, if they lose, the funder may be required to pay all the legal costs awarded to the winning side or not. If not, they may have a liability to make up the balance themselves.
Landlords, tenants and property professionals will welcome a new version of the Code for leasing business premises in England & Wales, published by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Employers offering enhanced contractual maternity pay to mothers are not guilty of direct or indirect discrimination, and are not breaching equal pay rules, if they fail to give enhanced pay to fathers taking shared parental leave as well, the Supreme Court has confirmed.