The Baker McKenzie London Employment team is delighted to welcome you back to our virtual mini-series, “Employment Rights: is 2022 the year of enforcement?”, with episode four, which is part two of our holiday pay focus during which we’ve explored key considerations for employers who are managing the thorny issue of holiday pay. This episode builds on that discussion with analysis of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Harpur Trust v Brazel case, which is likely to require many employers to change the way they calculate holiday pay for atypical workers such as casual, bank and zero hours staff (amongst others).

With increased regulatory scrutiny and the emergence of employee activism, companies have experienced an elevated risk of trade secret disclosure from current or former employees acting as putative whistleblowers. In this episode, Aaron Goodman (Partner, Los Angeles) discussed key factors companies should consider in balancing their trade secret interests against the protections afforded to whistleblowers, with a focus on recent whistleblower laws across the globe.

In our four-part Navigating the World webinar series, US moderators welcomed colleagues from around the globe to share the latest labor and employment law updates and trends impacting US-based multinational employers with business operations in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific, including:
• the impact of the current social and political climate on multinational employers
• New significant legislative developments
• Inclusion and diversity (I&D) advancements and trends
• Best practices for a flexible workforce, addressing remote and hybrid work

In an article published for ELA briefing, Stephen Ratcliffe discusses the implications of two IR35 appeals: Kickabout House and Atholl House, with Chris Stone from Devereux Chambers. Of particular interest to employment practitioners is what they say about the determination of employment status generally, and what may be a material difference in the way in which employment misclassification issues should be approached as regards employment rights versus tax rights.

In two recent cases, the Court of Appeal has provided some guidance on the test to determine if someone is an employee for tax purposes. In doing so, it considered and, in some key respects, distinguished the approach taken when determining whether someone is an employee or worker for the purposes of employment rights. The result may well be a different answer when determining status for tax purposes from the answer for the purposes of employment rights.

Today’s remote working environment can lead to unexpected complications when employers seek to prevent the disclosure of trade secrets or enforce restrictive covenants. Stephen Ratcliffe (Partner, London) outlines some of the key trade secrets issues that arise in remote working scenarios and provides practical tips for avoiding common pitfalls.

The Baker McKenzie London Employment team is delighted to welcome you back to our virtual mini-series, “Employment Rights: is 2022 the year of enforcement?”, with episode three, where we turn our attention to National Minimum Wage, a topic that has the potential to be quite tricky to navigate for employers and one where we have already seen significant enforcement activity by HMRC over the past few years. In this episode, Stephen Ratcliffe and Oliver Moreton cover some of the key issues that employers need to consider, including the different types of work under the legislation, what counts as working time, the payments that count towards minimum wage, and the deductions that reduce pay for the purposes of minimum wage calculations.

Join Baker McKenzie for a four-part webinar series as US moderators welcome colleagues from around the globe to share the latest labor and employment law updates and trends. US-based multinational employers with business operations in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific regions will hear directly from local practitioners on the major developments they need to know, and come away with practical tips and takeaways to implement.

In this episode Richard Cook and Amy Ling discuss how the inclusion of holiday pay in the government’s proposed single enforcement body remit is expected to put employers under increased scrutiny as they handle arrangements in this sensitive, and often tricky, area to navigate.

The Baker McKenzie London Employment team is delighted to share with you episode one of our new virtual miniseries, “Employment Rights: is 2022 the year of enforcement?”, where we will be taking an in-depth look into the areas we believe there will be significant developments to the enforcement of UK employment rights in 2022 and beyond.