Final Claims for Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme

Care home operators who fail in their duty to keep residents safe can expect severe punishment. That was certainly so in the case of a wheelchair-dependent man who was engulfed by flames whilst smoking outside the care home where he lived. The man, who had suffered a stroke, had been resident in the home for almost a decade. He was a known smoker and had been left alone in a sheltered outdoor area to enjoy a cigarette. He caught fire and, despite desperate efforts to extinguish the blaze, it…

When considering whether an employee’s misconduct justifies their dismissal, context is everything. An Employment Tribunal (ET) made that point in the case of a warehouse operative who responded angrily on social media after she was laid off at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The woman and some of her colleagues were laid off, without pay, shortly before the first lockdown came into force. They formed a closed Facebook Messenger group on which disparaging comments were made about the…

Employment law has moved on in leaps and bounds since the bad old days of mass casual labour. However, as an Employment Tribunal (ET) decision showed, a large number of people still go to work every day without any clear idea of whether they are employed or self-employed, or any understanding of why that distinction matters. The case concerned a van driver who worked for the same company (C1) for about 17 years before it was taken over by another (C2). The latter accepted that it was obliged by…