In a ground-breaking case, an Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that overtime should be included in holiday pay. Historically, non-guaranteed overtime has not been used in the calculation for holiday pay at the time that employees take leave. This has long been criticised by unions on the basis that, as they see it, it penalised workers for taking…
View PostOctober 24, 2014
New equal pay powers for Tribunals
Employment Tribunals now have the power to order equal pay audits for employers who have lost equal pay claims. Equal pay audits have previously been championed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission as good practice. However, they have not been mandatory until now – as we briefly mentioned last month in our article Four October…
View PostSeptember 24, 2014
Case against Tribunal Fees grows
The case against the introduction of Employment Tribunal Fees is gaining momentum – with UNISON bringing brand new evidence to the table. The Trade Union’s recent appeal case – heard on 18 September – has been put on hold and a new one with much stronger evidence will be presented at the High Court. UNISON reports that in the…
View PostAugust 19, 2014
Over four million employees have now Auto Enrolled
More than four million workers are part of an Auto Enrolment workplace pension scheme, according to recent figures from The Pensions Regulator (TPR). More than 21,000 employers have now told TPR how they have met their duties in their compliance declaration. The figures also showed that 8.6 million employees were now members of qualifying pension…
View PostMarch 21, 2014
How does the 2014 Budget impact SMEs?
Chancellor George Osborne delivered his Budget speech in Parliament this week, with a favourable outcome for SMEs. He boosted two key areas of commercial activity – business investment and exports, both of which have badly underperformed in recent years. The Chancellor doubled the Annual Investment Allowance and, from the start of the new tax year,…
View PostMarch 19, 2014
Budget 2014: Predictions
It’s the day of the UK 2014 Budget and the big question is – will the Government favour the electorate or SMEs? There’s just 14 months left until the next election which could influence Chancellor George Osborne’s financial decisions. But the Coalition’s reliance on small businesses to drive the country out of recession may be…
View PostFebruary 10, 2014
Cloud-based HR solution leads the way
UK-wide sales of Moorepayhr have continued their significant market growth, increasing by over 100% from last year. The cloud-based HR solution, launched by leading payroll and HR company Moorepay less than two years ago, is now adding value to more than 2500 small and medium sized businesses. Designed to eliminate many of the day-to-day administrative…
View PostFebruary 7, 2014
Employment Tribunal fees – Judicial review fails
UNISON has failed to overturn the introduction of fees for Claimants in the Employment Tribunal system. The High Court in The Queen on the Application of Unison v Lord Chancellor has turned down UNISON’s judicial review application against the Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 (the ‘2013 Order’). On the surface this…
View PostFebruary 6, 2014
Could auto enrolment spell trouble for SMEs?
It’s all change for UK pensions with the introduction of the Government’s latest shake up to employment law – auto enrolment. The new legislation, a bid to ensure all UK workers have a retirement fund by the end of their careers, means all business must automatically enrol qualifying workers into a company pension scheme. This…
View PostJanuary 2, 2014
False fire alarms now lead to fines for London businesses
London businesses will now be charged if they call the fire service more than 10 times a year for a false alarm. In the last financial year, London Fire Brigade (LFB) was called out to 403 locations over 10 times, which cost it around £800,000. If it had charged for this, nearly £500,000 would have…
View PostDecember 6, 2013
Young Brits told they have to work until 70
Young UK workers can expect a long working life following Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement that the state pension age will increase to 70. Part of a long-term plan to save £500 billion over the next 50 years, the reform was announced on Thursday in the half-yearly statement about the UK economy. Increasing the state pension age…
View PostNovember 28, 2013
Moorepay launches cloud-based Time and Attendance solution
UK businesses lose millions every year through inefficient payroll reporting, incorrect data entry and even timecard fraud. Business owners are constantly looking for solutions that save money without sacrificing their efficiency or productivity. Just five minutes of lost time per employee per day may result in a business losing over £100 per employee per year,…
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