The Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that drivers who use online taxi company Uber’s app are ‘workers’ within the meaning of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA), rather than self-employed contractors, and thus have the right to be paid the National Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage and to receive holiday pay. However, the Court has given the company permission to appeal to the Supreme Court (Uber BV and Others v Aslam and Others). Continue reading →

In a guideline ruling, the Court of Appeal recently found that on a straightforward reading of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999, two care workers who were expected to sleep for all or most of their shifts and were provided with suitable facilities were entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for time when they were required to be awake for the purpose of performing some particular task, but not for time when they were asleep (Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Jaikishan and Another). Continue reading →

The Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 established a minimum standard of fairness for part-timers so that they cannot be treated less favourably than comparable full-time co-workers, unless the treatment is justified on objective grounds. Continue reading →

The general rule is that employees who work outside Britain cannot bring complaints before domestic Employment Tribunals (ETs). However, as a guideline Court of Appeal decision showed, there are exceptions and the issue of where the territorial reach of UK employment law finds its limits is highly fact sensitive (The British Council v Jeffery). Continue reading →