Final Claims for Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme

Boardroom tensions often lead to precipitate action but resorting to dismissal without following proper procedures is never a good solution. An Employment Tribunal (ET) made that point in upholding whistleblowing, unfair dismissal and age discrimination complaints brought by a start-up company’s former chief financial officer. The woman’s dismissal occurred against a background of increasingly dysfunctional boardroom relationships. Without due process, she was removed as a Companies House…

The COVID-19 lockdowns plunged thousands of businesses into dire financial straits but, as an Employment Tribunal (ET) ruling showed, the unprecedented crisis in no way relieved hard-pressed employers of their legal obligation to manage redundancy processes openly and fairly. The case concerned a fitter/welder who was on furlough when made redundant by a small engineering company. The pandemic had a catastrophic impact on the company’s business – reducing its turnover from £11 million to £5…

Property occupiers are obliged to take reasonable care for the safety of their visitors, but does that duty extend to those who choose to take obvious risks? The Court of Appeal addressed that issue in a guideline case concerning a hotel guest who fell out of a window to his death. The man was staying on the hotel’s second floor after attending a wedding when he fell nine metres from the sash window in the early hours of the morning. His widow sought compensation from the hotel’s owner under…