Charlesworth v Dransfields Engineering Services Ltd
Mr Charlesworth, a branch manager, took a period of sick leave after developing cancer. His employer had been looking to make cost savings, and during Mr Charlesworth’s absence the business identified the possibility of a restructure that would delete his job and save the business up to £40,000 a year.
Continue ReadingKinnear v Marley Eternit Ltd t/a Marley Contract Services
Mr Kinnear was taken on by Marley under a four-year apprenticeship during which he was trained in roofing.
A downturn in workload led to his dismissal for redundancy despite his contract having 122 weeks left to run. He could not find another company to take him on, and so was not able to finish his apprenticeship.
Continue ReadingGnahoua v Abellio London Ltd
Employees have the right to be accompanied by a colleague, or a trade union representative or official at a disciplinary hearing. An employer who breaches this could face a tribunal claim and the possibility of having to pay compensation of up to two weeks’ pay.
Continue ReadingThe Government Legal Service v Brookes
Psychometric testing has long been a way of assessing the aptitude of job applicants. But this tick-box test, marked by computers, doesn’t necessarily provide a level playing field.
Ms Brookes has Asperger’s Syndrome. She applied for a job as a trainee lawyer in the Government Legal Services (GLS). The first stage of the recruitment process was a multiple-choice test, known as a Situational Judgment Test (SJT). Ms Brookes asked if she could respond by giving short narrative written answers. (The tribunal went on to find that, as a person with Asperger’s, she lacked social imagination and would have difficulties in imaginative and counter-factual reasoning in hypothetical scenarios.) GLS refused.
Continue ReadingFocus Care Agency v Roberts
Certain industries, perhaps most notably the care industry, rely on workers being on-call; sometimes even sleeping at work so that they’re on site and available to help if needed. The perennial question, for employment law purposes, is whether these workers are ‘working’ – and entitled to the rights that go with that (not least the National Minimum Wage) – for the entire time, and not just when they are awake and attending to duties.
Continue Reading‘FinTech’ or financial technology is a phrase increasingly used in the media, the finance sector and the business world in general. In the broadest sense, financial technology is any technology that is used and applied in the financial services sector which improves the delivery of financial services. But what does that mean and why should you care that it is one of the fastest growing areas for venture capitalists or that the sector generated almost £7billion revenue in 2016?
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The Neuberg family operated a business producing light metal products and traded under the name Neuberg Metal Spinners for many years. In 1998 a company operated by Mr Neuberg called Neuberg Metal Spinners Limited went into liquidation. Despite this, the family business continued to trade under the name Neuberg Metals but through a new company, Watergate Services Limited, of which Mrs Neuberg was the sole director and secretary.
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You buy (or think you buy) a vacant investment property. You complete the purchase and all goes smoothly until you get a visit from someone who says he is the owner and that he never sold you anything…
Continue ReadingWe are pleased to announce that the fifth edition of our popular Guide to Asset Finance Law is now published and ready to distribute. The guide provides up-to-date relevant legislative and case law developments.
Continue ReadingA recent case between a foreign bank and BP Oil as assignor on somewhat unusual facts required the court to examine the principles of assignment of contract rights, and resulted in a very expensive lesson for the assignor.
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