Vedder Price PC (LexBlog United Kingdom)

Several key changes to UK employment rights  will come into effect in April 2024. By way of brief summary, the key changes for employers to be aware of, and those that will require immediate attention to ensure legally compliant and up-to-date HR policies and practices in the UK, include the following: Changes to the flexible...

Seven years after the UK Supreme Court decided that the payment of fees to bring Employment Tribunal claims was unlawful and should be abolished, the Government has published a consultation paper to reintroduce fees in the Employment Tribunals (“ET”) and Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”). The old fees regime was first introduced in 2013, and categorised ET...

The Supreme Court has released its decision in the case of Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland v Agnew.  The Court decided that, with respect to a series of unlawful deductions, a gap of more than three months, or a correct payment, will not automatically break the chain in a series of...

Hot on the heels of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) proposal for a complete ban on non-competes, the UK Government has announced its intention to limit the length of non-compete clauses to three months. Impact of the reforms in the UK Importantly, the three-month limit will apply only to non-compete clauses.  Thus, it will not affect...

Under UK data protection legislation, individuals, also called “data subjects”, have the right to make a data subject access request (DSAR) to organisations that “process” their personal data.  Similar rights are required by both the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act.  Amongst other things, as part of a DSAR, data...

Under UK data protection legislation, individuals, also called “data subjects”, have the right to make a data subject access request (DSAR) to organisations that “process” their personal data.  Similar rights are required by both the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act.  Amongst other things, as part of a DSAR, data...

Amidst gridlock in the UK Parliament, the Worker Protection Bill (“the Bill”), an amendment to the Equality Act 2010 that was introduced to place a duty on employers to proactively protect employees from sexual harassment in the workplace, has been scaled back. The Bill, introduced to increase employment protections following a highly critical report on...

Alcohol dependence can raise significant implications for health, work performance and safety in the workplace. Employers should be prepared to address these concerns with a well-drafted policy that sets out the procedures to follow should any concerns be raised. The following are suggested for such a policy: Gathering evidence. Understand how the issue may be...

On 3 October 2022, at the Conservative Party Conference, Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, made a speech announcing that the UK Government intends to replace the UK GDPR with a new “British data protection system”.  During her speech, Ms. Donelan suggested that the current data protection laws shackled...

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced in his Autumn Statement last week that the recent changes to the “off-payroll” working rules (otherwise known as “IR35”) are going to be repealed. Although the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, made tax-cutting and a “smaller state” a pillar of her leadership campaign, this announcement has caught many by surprise given...

The UK’s longest-reigning monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, has passed away, leaving the nation and people across the world in mourning.  The Government has now confirmed that Monday, 19 September 2022, will be a national public holiday (otherwise known as a “bank holiday”) to coincide with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral.  The...

In the UK, and most of Europe, employees have statutory rights to holiday leave and the question of holiday pay (and how to calculate it) has been a challenging issue for a long time.  The Supreme Court in London has provided much-needed clarity by ruling in Harpur Trust v Brazel that holiday pay for part-year...

The UK government’s reform of data protection laws and the mechanics of cross-border data transfers has accelerated in the first half of 2022. Various European regulators, including the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have expressed an intent to more closely monitor compliance with the data transfer rules and impose potentially significant fines where breaches are...

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (679/2016/EU), the GDPR, comes into force across the EU on 25 May 2018. As it is being made by regulation the GDPR, unlike the existing Data Protection Directive (implemented into the UK by the Data Protection Act 1998), will have direct effect throughout the EU. National governments will have...

Businesses have largely benefitted from the proliferation of mobile devices and text messaging apps that facilitate quick, round-the-clock communications. However, such technologies also make it increasingly difficult to monitor and control the unauthorized distribution of confidential data. On March 30, UK regulators fined a former managing director of Jeffries Group for divulging confidential...