News

The Employment Rights Bill has now completed its passage through Parliament and has become law. On 18 December 2025, the Employment Rights Bill received Royal Assent and was enacted as the Employment Rights Act 2025. Royal Assent is the formal step by which the Bill became an Act of Parliament. The Act introduces additions and … Read more

The government has made regulations to extend the maximum period for ACAS early conciliation from six weeks to 12 weeks from 1 December 2025, to ease pressure on ACAS following an increase in caseload. The EC period is the period within which ACAS has a duty to promote settlement once a claim has been notified to … Read more

In Ndaryiyumvire v Birmingham City University [2025] 10 WLUK 719, the court ordered wasted costs against a firm of solicitors which had filed an application to amend particulars of claim citing two fictitious authorities. The firm explained that the document had been an unapproved draft generated by a member of staff using legal software with … Read more

The government has announced that it will drop the proposals for day-one unfair dismissal rights in the Employment Rights Bill and adopt instead a six-month qualifying period, in order to get the rest of the Bill passed by the House of Lords. Following two defeats in the House of Lords over the removal of the unfair … Read more

Contractual sick pay for school staff is determined by whether they fall under the Burgundy Book (teachers) or the Green Book (support staff). Both documents set out contractual sick pay arrangements that apply in addition to Statutory Sick Pay, but the rules, entitlements and the way entitlement is calculated differ between the two schemes. The … Read more

In Mayanja v City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council [2025] EAT 160, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that an employment tribunal had erred by failing to revisit its liability findings after the late discovery of compelling new evidence that fundamentally undermined its assessment of the claimant’s credibility. The claimant, had applied for a role with … Read more

Is progression on the Upper Pay Range annual? Yes, it is annual when on the Upper Pay Range (but there can still be an application required to move on to UPR). They don’t need to request the incremental move through the Upper Pay Range but can choose not to have the progression if they do not … Read more

Introduction  The role of the Investigating Officer in a disciplinary case is crucial.  We have some recent examples where unions have argued that the Investigating Officer should not present the ‘management case’ to the disciplinary panel.  Most, if not all, of our clients’ disciplinary policies provide for the Investigating Officer to attend the disciplinary hearing … Read more

Does an employer have to give a good reference for an employee?  There is a common misconception that a current or former employee is entitled to a ‘good’ reference or, more accurately, that an employer cannot make any negative comments about an employee.  This is simply wrong. School Staffing (England) Regulations 2009 In the education sector … Read more

In Ogumodede v Churchill Contract Services [2025] 9 WLUK 482, the Employment Tribunal held that an employee was fairly dismissed after her employer discovered that she had been working in two separate cleaning roles for the same company following a TUPE transfer, covering both day and night shifts at different locations. The tribunal also dismissed … Read more