Employment UK

  • April 23, 2025

    Regulator Reduces Payout To Worker Who Refused New Role

    An employment tribunal has ordered the General Medical Council to pay £18,403 ($24,430) to a former staff member with multiple medical conditions for treating her unfairly, but rejected her bid for future lost wages because she had refused a chance to stay on.

  • April 23, 2025

    Pension Watchdog Clarifies Rules On Superfund Deals

    The U.K. retirement savings watchdog said Wednesday that it wants to smooth out "friction points" that may be holding back further transactions in the burgeoning pensions superfund market.

  • April 23, 2025

    Childcare Act Expansion Could Boost Pension Pots By £1.2B

    More parents reentering the workforce because of expanded childcare provisions in the U.K. could increase the retirement pots of savers by £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion), a pension provider said Wednesday.

  • April 23, 2025

    Heathrow Guard Unfairly Fired Over Alleged Racist Video

    A tribunal has held that Heathrow Airport unfairly fired a security officer after he showed his colleague a video allegedly portraying India as dirty, ruling that his actions did not justify dismissal.

  • April 22, 2025

    Eye Doctor Can't Sue Over Unpaid Role Lost After Gaza Posts

    A tribunal has blocked an eye doctor's discrimination claim after she lost her role with a professional body over allegedly antisemitic social media posts on the Israel-Hamas war, ruling that she was not an employee.

  • April 22, 2025

    Gov't Delays Police Disability Benefit Reform

    The Home Office said Tuesday that it will not introduce immediate reforms to benefits available to police officers who are injured in the line of duty, despite concerns that current rules might put officers with mental health conditions at a disadvantage.

  • April 22, 2025

    Bouygues UK Unit Wins Appeal To Ax Age Bias Claim

    A U.K. subsidiary of engineering firm Bouygues has won its bid to toss out an age discrimination claim brought by a former employee, with an appeal tribunal ruling that the ex-worker brought the claim too late without good reason.

  • April 22, 2025

    Schneider To Pay £35K For Racist Treatment Of Ex-Staffer

    An employment tribunal has ruled that Schneider Electric must pay £35,109 ($47,000) to a Black employee who had been set up to fail by his bosses because they preferred a white woman for the job. 

  • April 22, 2025

    Pensions Bill For UK Businesses Shrinks Over 5 Years

    The amount that businesses have had to plow into distressed pension funds has shrunk over the past five years because of rapid improvements in funding, a consultancy said Tuesday.

  • April 22, 2025

    Aviva Study Reveals 'Concerning Gap' In Pensions Knowledge

    Only a third of savers in the U.K. can correctly identify a defined benefit or defined contribution pension plan, according to a study published by Aviva on Tuesday.

  • April 22, 2025

    Tariff Wars Cloud UK Plan To Harness Pensions For Growth

    The U.K. government has laid out plans for Britain's £3 trillion ($4 trillion) pensions sector to unleash more retirement assets into the real economy to boost growth and jobs — but a series of market shocks from proposed global trade tariffs have overshadowed reform plans. 

  • April 22, 2025

    Employers Must Answer Tribunal Claims Via Portal, Not Email

    Employers and their lawyers will have to respond to claims brought by workers at the Employment Tribunal through new online portals rather than email, according to new rules coming into force in May.

  • April 17, 2025

    Pillsbury Seeks Help Finding Ex-Solicitor In Prison

    The Employment Appeal Tribunal agreed on Thursday to help Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP locate a solicitor in prison so she has a fair chance to pursue her appeals against her former firm.

  • April 17, 2025

    Mishcon De Reya Must Pay £24K To Ex-Director For Dismissal

    Mishcon de Reya LLP must pay a former sales director £23,800 ($31,500) after it pushed him to quit by scrutinizing his performance even though there was nothing he could do to improve his output, a tribunal said in a decision published Thursday.

  • April 17, 2025

    UK Doctors' Regulator Beats Union's Case Over New Guidance

    The U.K.'s biggest doctors' union failed to prove Thursday that the profession's regulator was harming patients by labeling certain staff who aren't medically qualified as "medical professionals," ruling that the move was meant to elevate standards rather than lower them.

  • April 17, 2025

    Criminal Defense Firm Loses Bid To Nix Unpaid Wages Claim

    A law firm lost its bid on Thursday to throw out a claim for unpaid wages brought by an ex-employee, with the Employment Appeal Tribunal rejecting its argument that the solicitor was not actually an employee.

  • April 17, 2025

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    The past week in London has seen the producers of West End show "Elf the Musical" face a contract dispute, Korean biotech company ToolGen Inc. bring a fresh patents claim against pharma giant Vertex, and ousted car tycoon Peter Waddell bring a claim against the private equity firm that backed his business. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • April 17, 2025

    Booking Agency Revives Claim Over Coldplay Gigs Payout

    An appeals court has rekindled a concert booking agency's claim that a former employee must hand over the commission from arranging a set of Coldplay gigs, ruling in a split decision Thursday that an earlier judge was too quick to toss the case.

  • April 17, 2025

    Worker Wins 2nd Shot At Claim Over Vetting Concerns

    A systems designer can have a second shot at arguing that she wasn't hired by a digital services consultancy because she questioned its vetting practices, after an appeals tribunal said Thursday that she made whistleblowing claims.

  • April 17, 2025

    Ex-Pandora Boss Sues Trustee Over £3.3M Tax Bill

    The former president of jewelry giant Pandora has sued a tax adviser for allegedly mismanaging his retirement trust and negligently exposing him and the company to significant liabilities and financial loss tied to a €2.2 million ($2.5 million) French property deal.

  • April 17, 2025

    EHRC To Update Legal Guidance After Watershed Sex Ruling

    The equality watchdog is making moves to update legal guidance on single-sex spaces following Wednesday's ruling by the U.K. Supreme Court that the legal definition of sex in anti-discrimination law covers only biological sex amid calls to update critical legislation.

  • April 17, 2025

    Ex-Burberry Designer Can Expand ADHD Discrimination Case

    A Burberry fashion design school graduate who alleged that having meetings in his workplace was disability discrimination because he has ADHD was granted permission on Thursday to expand his case — but only if he provides more details.

  • April 17, 2025

    BoE Insurance Reforms Could Harm Pension Deal Prices

    New freedoms that would allow insurers to invest more easily in a wider range of instruments could lead to reduced pricing for pension funds approaching the bulk purchase annuity market, a broker has said.

  • April 16, 2025

    Top Court's Ruling On Sex Simplifies Duties, But Not Disputes

    The U.K. Supreme Court's ruling that the definition of sex in anti-discrimination law applies only to biological sex simplifies employers' obligations around single-sex spaces and services — but it will further complicate workplace disputes arising from a conflict with transgender rights.

  • April 16, 2025

    NHS To Pay £202K To Nurse Who Developed 'Social Phobia'

    An employment tribunal has ordered a National Health Service hospital to pay £202,449 ($268,062) to a senior nurse after discriminating against him by failing to provide him with equipment and software he needed after a stroke.

Expert Analysis

  • UK Modern Slavery Act: Public Shame In The Supply Chain

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    Businesses are increasingly expected to respect human rights wherever they operate. Though light on government regulation, the U.K. Modern Slavery Act is designed to engineer pressure from consumers, investors and the media, which could ultimately be more effective at driving up standards than the threat of legal enforcement action, says Richard Tauwhare at Dechert LLP.

  • New UK Supply Chain Disclosures Apply To US Companies

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    Starting in October 2015, some U.S. companies, including many that already come within the scope of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, will be required to make disclosures about the steps their supply chains are taking to prevent human trafficking under the U.K.'s Modern Slavery Act, says Michael Littenberg at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.

  • A New Compliance Challenge For Cos. Doing Business In UK

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    On the heels of the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010 — a close copy of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — the United Kingdom has now taken cues from another novel U.S. enactment, this time the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, and delivered its own disclosure regime on the doorsteps of the international business world, say attorneys with Perkins Coie LLP.

  • UK-Based LLP Partners Now Enjoy More Protections

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    The crux of the debate in Bates van Winklehof v. Clyde & Co LLP was whether a partner could be considered a “worker” under U.K. law. The U.K. Supreme Court's holding will have potentially wide-reaching implications for LLPs with U.K.-based partners, say Katie Clark and Sharon Tan of McDermott Will & Emery LLP.

  • Mapping The Revised UK Takeover Landscape

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    The key impact of recent and impending changes to the U.K. Takeover Code for private equity bidders is that a bidder is now required to disclose its plans for employer contributions to the target’s defined benefit pension schemes, including the current arrangements for funding any scheme deficit, say attorneys with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.

  • Religious Freedom In The Workplace: UK Edition

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    Recently, four U.K. cases concerning whether each employee had been discriminated against on the grounds of religion culminated in the European Court of Human Rights' decision in Eweida and Others v. the United Kingdom. As demonstrated by these cases, it appears that aims such as the protection of other human rights carry more weight than projecting a certain corporate image, say attorneys with Latham & Watkins LLP.

  • 4 Big Changes Coming To UK Private Antitrust Enforcement

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    The U.K. government recently published its response to its consultation on private actions in competition law. If implemented, the proposals to introduce opt-out collective actions and settlement procedures for businesses and consumers as well as a fast-track process are likely to increase significantly the number of claims started in the U.K., say attorneys with Allen & Overy LLP.

  • 10 Tips For An Effective Cross-Border Investigation

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    Multinational employers may find themselves investigating alleged wrongdoing that occurred in more than one nation, and U.S.-based lawyers and human resources executives often coordinate and directly carry out investigations overseas. But before boarding an international flight to interview witnesses or to review personnel files, in-house counsel and HR executives need to understand that the rules are different when it comes to conducting international investigations, says Philip Berkowitz of Littler Mendelson PC.

  • Choice-Of-Law Clauses: Drawbacks For Employers

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    The problem with an employment context choice-of-law clause is that it implicates tougher employment laws of the selected jurisdiction without blocking the mandatory application of tougher employment protection laws. The multinational employer now has to comply with two sets of employment protection laws, rather than just one, says Donald Dowling of White & Case LLP.

  • Spotlight On UK's Changing Employment Laws

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    The U.K. government recently announced that it is consulting on proposals, which, if implemented, will have a significant impact on the U.K. workplace and employment litigation. With these, plus other ongoing bills, proposals, reviews and consultations, it appears that employer-friendly legislation is on the horizon for 2013, says Suzanne Horne of Paul Hastings LLP.

  • Determining Whose Laws Protect Border-Crossing Employees

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    Probably the most common question in international employment law practice is, "which countries’ employment laws protect border-crossing employees such as expatriates and mobile workers?" This question is relevant when arranging any mobile job, expatriate posting or “secondment,” and it becomes vital when a multinational needs to dismiss border‑crossing staff, says Donald Dowling or White & case LLP

  • UK Reforms: A New Era In Criminal Cartel Enforcement?

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    A law before U.K. Parliament, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, aims to achieve "strong, sustainable and balanced growth" through wide-ranging measures that seek to improve several areas of the law. In particular, the proposed competition law reforms represent a major re-casting of the U.K. regime, say Becket McGrath and Trupti Reddy of Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP.

  • Recent Developments In German Competition Law

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    The first half of 2012 saw again significant enforcement activity at the German Federal Cartel Office. The authority prohibited two mergers, imposed fines on three cartels, installed an anonymous whistleblower system, and started the second phase of its food sector inquiry, say Silvio Cappellari and Maria Held of Arnold & Porter LLP.

  • Weighing UK Pensions Regulator's Moral Hazard Powers

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    The question of whether the U.K. Pension Regulator's moral hazard powers are enforceable outside the U.K. arose first in the Sea Containers case in 2008 and, more recently, in the cases of the Nortel Networks’ U.K. DB Scheme and the Great Lakes DB Scheme. The differing approach of the Pension Regulator, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and the Canadian courts in each of these cases is noteworthy, say Sian Robertson of Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP and David Cleary of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

  • Extra-Territorial Application Of The Automatic Stay

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    A recent decision in the Nortel Networks Chapter 11 proceedings demonstrates the difficulty of an expansive approach to U.S. bankruptcy court jurisdiction and calls into question the ability of claimholders to participate in statutorily mandated foreign proceedings without risking loss of their claims and potential sanctions in the U.S. bankruptcy court, say Steven R. Gross, Katherine Ashton and Shannon Rebholz of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.

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