Taking On Staff? Doing So Prematurely Can Have Serious Consequences

Taking on staff is often a necessary precursor to setting up a new business. As an Employment Tribunal (ET) decision showed, however, entering into any form of binding employment relationship is a serious step and doing so prematurely can have grave financial consequences.

The case…

Mar 10, 2021

John cameron mkkhgxilvoc unsplash 1024x768

Taking on staff is often a necessary precursor to setting up a new business. As an Employment Tribunal (ET) decision showed, however, entering into any form of binding employment relationship is a serious step and doing so prematurely can have grave financial consequences.

The case concerned an entrepreneur who set up a security company with a view to providing lucrative services to a high net worth individual who intended to visit the UK. Two days after its incorporation, the company entered into an employment contract with an acquaintance of the entrepreneur. He was taken on as a trainee close protection driver at a gross salary of over £2,000 per week.

The high net worth individual, however, decided not to use the company’s services and its business never got off the ground. As a result, the employee had been offered no work and had not been paid. He complained to an ET that unlawful deductions had been made from his wages.

Upholding his claim, the ET noted that he had left his previous job in order to join the company. He had neither resigned nor been dismissed and therefore remained the company’s employee. The fact that he had done no actual work for the company did not affect his contractual entitlements. The company was ordered to pay him £44,352, that sum representing 22 weeks’ salary.

High Court Apportions Liability for Worker’s Construction Site Fall

Construction workers often do not have formal employment contracts and, in a world where contractors and subcontractors proliferate, it can be hard to tell where legal responsibility lies in the event of an accident. That was certainly so in a High Court case concerning a labourer who suffered catastrophic injuries in a workplace fall. The worker was engaged in building a mezzanine office at factory premises when he fell onto concrete, fracturing his skull. He suffered a severe brain injury,…

Non-Executive Directors and ‘Worker’ Status – Guideline Ruling

Can a non-executive director who receives no more than an honorarium for services that he provides voluntarily enjoy the protected status of a ‘worker’? That was the thorny issue addressed by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in a guideline case. The case concerned a professional who was appointed to a four-year non-executive directorship of a national sporting body. In Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings, he alleged that he had been subjected to detriments for whistleblowing. His claim…

Disability Discrimination by Association – Guideline EAT Decision

It may sound surprising, but you need not necessarily be disabled in order to suffer disability discrimination. As one case showed, it is legally possible for a non-disabled employee to suffer discrimination by association with a disabled colleague. A sales manager was recruited by a company’s sales and marketing director, who subsequently became disabled due to cancer. After both men were dismissed, the manager launched proceedings, asserting that he had been subjected to direct disability…