In its “Make Work Pay” manifesto, the Labour government pledged to bring in the “right to switch off” for workers. The government is reportedly considering a Code of Practice on such right, which may operate in a similar way to the Codes of Practice on disciplinary and grievance matters, and fire and rehire, with the potential for uplifts in compensation for specified types of claims where there has been non-compliance. Full details of the proposals are awaited but employers may wish to examine their hybrid and remote working arrangements now in order to ensure that they can react swiftly to future developments.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that an employee was precluded from bringing disability discrimination claims against his employer as they had been validly waived under a prior settlement agreement. The decision confirms the Court of Session’s decision in Bathgate v. Technip Singapore PTE Ltd that unknown future claims can be validly waived under a settlement agreement although the drafting will need to be absolutely clear in this respect.

The Supreme Court has ruled that section 146 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) which does not prevent employers from taking action short of dismissal in response to striking employees is incompatible with Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Although the declaration of incompatibility does not affect the validity or operation of section 146, it will put pressure on the government to legislate to correct the position, and employers are likely to be mindful of the decision when considering action short of dismissal in response to industrial action. Detriments for participation in industrial action, such as removing discretionary benefits from those who take part, currently remain lawful, so long as the detriments in question aren’t so severe as to constitute a constructive dismissal.

The Presidents of the Employment Tribunals (England & Wales and Scotland) have issued Presidential Guidance updating the Vento bands for damages for injury to feelings and psychiatric injury in discrimination claims.

The government has announced the annual increases to tribunal compensation awards and statutory redundancy payments from 6 April 2024.

A number of employment law changes will, or are expected to, come into force in April in the UK that employers should make note of. We have summarized them here for reference.

On 7 February 2024, the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) issued several investment promotion measures under the announcements as follows: 1) Investment Promotion Measure for Social and Local Development 2) Retention and Expansion Program 3) Relocation Program 4) Investment Stimulation Measure for Economic Recovery

Following a public consultation last year, the UK government has now published a revised draft statutory Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement (also known as fire and rehire) for Parliament to approve.

Welcome to the first edition of our quarterly HR Privacy newsletter brought to you by the London employment team designed to keep you updated with key cases, legal developments, trends and news relating to UK and EU-wide employment / HR data privacy matters.

In 2019, the government consulted on various measures to support families. It has now responded to chapter one of that consultation – Parental leave and pay: Supporting parents and achieving equality – and announced changes to the statutory paternity leave regime to give fathers and partners more choice and flexibility around how and when they take their entitlement.