Are you up to date with the changes in TUPE regulations? In November 2011, the Department for Business, Skills and Innovation (BIS) published a call for evidence, seeking views on the effectiveness of the current TUPE regulations. This was on the basis that it was thought that the regulations 'gold-plated' the EU Directive.

Following this call for evidence, the Government announced how the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) Regulations 2006 will change. After deciding not to go ahead with two significant changes it

29 July 2013 marks a dramatic change to employment tribunals (ET) as we have known them, with the introduction of employment tribunal fees. Under these new rules, claimants will be required to pay an upfront fee when submitting their claim to the ET and a further 'hearing fee' 21 days before their hearing takes place.

From 29 July, claimants wishing to submit a claim to the ET will be required to pay £160 or £250 to lodge a claim with a further charge of either

Following three re-drafts by the Government, a consensus was finally reached on employee shareholder legislation. In April 2013, the House of Lords and the Government agreed on wording of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill which introduced a new employment status employee shareholder.

First proposed by the Chancellor George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference last October, the original proposals saw a new employment status of employee shareholder that would see employees who were employed under this contract between £2,000 and £50,000 worth of shares, in

Should employers have a social media policy? The potential employment risks around social media was highlighted this month after the resignation of the first Youth Police and Crime Commissioner, Paris Brown, following racist tweets on her Twitter account. Although the tweets were sent before she applied for and accepted the job, they were there to be scrutinised by her future employers and the media.

It is taken for granted that everyone now has some sort of online presence  be it for business, pleasure or both.

Whether or not workers can reclaim holidays if they are sick during annual leave has caused a headache for employers for some time. In 2012, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in workers? favour. So what is the impact of sickness during annual leave?

What does this mean for employers?

In the case of ANGED v FASGA, the ECJ held that workers who fall ill during annual leave can take their holiday again at a later date.

Workers are already allowed to retake

Employment Tribunal statistics

The Employment Tribunals have published their annual statistics for the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012. Interestingly the total number of claims continues to decrease (from 236,000 in 2009/2010 to 218,000 in 2010/2011 and decreasing again to 186,000 in 2011/212).

Unfair dismissal claims have fallen from 47,900 to 46,300. If anyone is interested in reading the report it can be obtained from the Ministry of Justice website.

Employment Tribunal fees

The Ministry of Justice has recently published the results of

The European Commission published draft proposals in January 2012 which aim to update data protection regulations and unify data protection within the EU.

Summary of Proposals

• Stricter requirements on organisations to adopt policies and procedures that clearly demonstrate how processing of personal data is carried out. Organisations will only be able to collect the minimum amount of data required for the task in hand, and can't retain data for longer than is necessary.
• Public authorities or commercial organisations which employ more than 250 people will