How do settlement agreements work in the agricultural sector?  

Farming is a demanding business – especially in these financially troubled times – and you need every staff member to be working at the top of their game. If you have an employee who is frequently late or calling in sick, or who is stirring up trouble with constant complaints, it can have an effect on the wellbeing of your livestock, the morale of other workers, and on your profit margin. Strict UK employment laws usually restrict your ability to simply sack a troublesome full-time employee without a long, arduous legal process. However, if you have an employee who is not performing as they should, or has raised a troublesome grievance in the workplace, a settlement agreement can be a useful way of terminating their employment, or resolving a dispute, without fear of repercussions, as Kalpesh…

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Could your business be named and shamed?

“Retail giants W H Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos are among firms who have been “named and shamed” by the government for breaking the minimum wage law. Almost £5m was found to be owed to around 63,000 workers following investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs dating back as far as 2017. These named employers have been made to pay back what they owed, and in addition were fined around £7m.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/minimum-wage-wh-smith-lloyds-argos-b2361300.html When my colleague sent me this article I was taken aback. How could some of our largest and best-established retailers fall foul of the most basic employment law? The law on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) is not simply about paying a minimum amount per hour worked. In fact, there are common pitfalls which, if breached, can land a business into seriously hot HMRC water. What are the…

Talking ‘off the record’ and settlement agreements

‘Using a settlement agreement to bring an employment relationship to an end, and effectively wipe the slate clean, can be very useful. But, to start the conversation, employers need to be able to speak off the record,’ says Kalpesh Nakeshree, Head of Employment Law with Ware & Kay in York, Wetherby & Malton. ‘There are ways that this can be done, but employers need to take care and be aware of a few limitations.’ Kalpesh explains what settlement agreements are; when discussions are ‘off the record’; the benefits of a settlement agreement and off-the-record conversations. He offers a word of caution and tips on strengthening your bargaining position, and takes a quick look at non-disclosure agreements after the #MeToo campaign.   What is a settlement agreement? A settlement agreement is a binding agreement to waive…

Getting employees back to the office

According to the Office for National Statistics, before the Covid pandemic only one in eight working adults reported working from home at least once during the previous seven days. This figure peaked at 49 per cent between April and June 2020. It has decreased since then, but not drastically, and the figure for January to February 2023 is 40 per cent. ‘Many employers now want staff to start working in the office either all the time or more frequently,’ says Kalpesh Nakeshree, a Head of Employment Law with Ware & Kay.  ‘Reasons for this include concerns about the impact of remote working on company culture; camaraderie; loyalty; learning opportunities for junior staff; supervision; productivity; innovation and collaboration.’ Kalpesh outlines the contractual and equalities issues that employers need to think about when seeking to make this…

Autism and Employment

Whilst Autism and more generally, ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) are widely recognised as developmental disabilities, this does not mean that they are widely accepted or understood by U.K. employers. In order to fully accept those on the Autism Spectrum, it is crucial that people begin to educate themselves (and others) on the disability wholly. A key starting point is understanding that every person on the spectrum is unique and therefore has their own individual needs. Despite those with ASD experiencing many similar traits, each person will be affected by their disability differently. There is no ‘one adjustment helps all’ approach that can be taken by employers who are looking to create a better environment for their ASD employees. In a recent case of mine, the employer argued that they had provided reasonable adjustments for their autistic…

Employment law risks when keeping clients happy

The client is king and businesses will usually do anything they can to keep and grow clients, but not everyone is committed to increasing diversity and inclusion at the same pace. This can create some tricky dilemmas. Should an employer accommodate a client’s discriminatory preferences? And does the employer have a duty to protect employees from discriminatory clients? ‘Employers can sometimes find themselves in the difficult position of wanting to keep a client happy, but also needing to protect their employees. The law in this area is a mix of seemingly contradictory provisions,’ says Kalpesh Nakeshree, Head of Employment Law with Ware & Kay in York, Wetherby & Malton. Kalpesh offers guidance and practical tips for dealing with this type of scenario and he also looks at the potential impact of clients rewarding diversity and…

Reducing farm payroll: lay-offs or redundancy?

Times are tough for UK farmers at present, with high energy prices and the cost-of-living crisis combining with the aftermath of Brexit and the pandemic to force many farming families to tighten their belts. One obvious way of saving costs is to reduce staffing numbers, with lay-offs, short-time working or redundancy all possible options. Kalpesh Nakeshree Head of Employment Law at Ware & Kay in York, Wetherby & Malton, outlines the legalities and potential pitfalls of these courses of action. Lay-offs and short-time working If you need to reduce your staff-count for only a short period, you could consider laying off an employee. This involves asking them to stay home or take unpaid leave until you need them on the workforce again. Alternatively, you can ask your employee to agree to short-time working, which sees…

Gary Lineker – No more Mr Nice guy?

What did Mr Lineker Tweet? Gary Lineker recently caused a political storm when he compared the current UK asylum policy to 1930s Germany. Mr Lineker Tweeted that the language in which the plan was set out was ‘’not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30’s’’ and referred to the policy as ‘’beyond awful’’. Why was this controversial? The BBC (his employer) has impartiality guidelines. He is one of their highest profile stars and receives his circa £1.8M salary from us the taxpayer. As a result the BBC felt the need to have a ‘’frank conversation’’ reminding him of his ‘’responsibilities.’’ As a gentleman on the radio said yesterday ‘’why should he spout politics? He should stick to football and flogging crisps. I don’t pay his salary to listen to his views on immigration’’. Mr…

Spring employment law round up

"Other than the usual April updates to statutory rates, it looks deceptively quiet on the regulatory front for employers. But the end of the year could see the biggest shake-up in employment law for years as a consequence of Brexit," explains Kalpesh Nakeshree, Head of Employment Law with Ware & Kay. Kalpesh highlights the key changes to rates, and looks at the extra bank holiday, a raft of private members’ bills aimed at seeing through earlier government commitments, a consultation on a statutory code on ‘fire and rehire’ and a couple of topical cases. Increase in statutory rates Employers should prepare for increases on the following dates: 1 April 2023 – national minimum wage Increase in the national living wage for workers aged 23 and over from £9.50 to £10.42 per hour. Increase in the…