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The High Court has granted springboard relief to an employer which initially applied for an interim injunction believing that three key employees had been headhunted by a competitor. Disclosure revealed that these employees had, during their employment and garden leave, covertly planned the resignation of several more employees and to move them and the employer's clients to the competitor company, which had been set up and financed for this purpose.

The ECJ has held that an employer's need to replace employees who are temporarily absent on maternity, parental or other leave may be an objective reason, within the meaning of the Framework Agreement on fixed term work, for renewing other employees' fixed-term contracts.

Is a fixed share equity partner in an LLP an 'employee'? No, says the Court of Appeal in Tiffin v Lester Aldridge LLP.

An employment tribunal has held that there was a "substantial serious failure" by Woolworths to comply with its collective consultation duties under section 188(1) of TULRCA when it closed its stores and made its retail employees redundant.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") has confirmed a seemingly obvious point, that a claimant may be put at a substantial disadvantage by a provision, criterion or practice, even though they are not required to comply with it. (Roberts v North West Ambulance Service UKEAT/0085.)

Over the next few years various changes will be made regarding pensions that employers need to be aware of. 

You have obtained a judgment and now have to take steps to enforce it.  In these difficult economic times debtors will now more than ever not cave in once your have obtained judgment.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") has held by a majority that an employment tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear an unfair dismissal claim from a former apprentice who was sponsored by the company (to which he had formerly been apprenticed) to undertake a university degree.

The High Court has held that a tenant owed default interest on late payments under a lease, even though the landlord had not issued any demand for default interest.

When the government announced this change on 3 October 2011, it gave no indication how it would affect existing employees (who may already have qualified for unfair dismissal rights).

Advocate General Mengozzi has given an opinion concerning the approach to be taken in a discrimination case where a job applicant with the necessary qualifications for an advertised job was twice refused an interview, and the employer refused to give any reasons for the decision.

Should the employment tribunal have proceeded to hear a claim in the Claimant's absence when he applied for a second adjournment on the basis of ill-health?  The Employment Appeal tribunal ("EAT") has said NO in O'Cathail v Transport for London.

In contrast to the recent Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) research which concluded that the Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) are not disadvantaging agency workers, a survey of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (Apsco) has found that employers of professional staff are likely to end temp and contractor assignments prematurely to avoid reaching the 12-week qualifying period which gives agency workers equal pay and rights to permanent employees.

The Tribunals Service has published quarterly statistics for 1 July to 30 September 2011 in relation to all types of tribunals (including employment tribunals).

The High Court has found that two former employees breached their implied duty of fidelity when they set up a company in competition with their former employer and they also breached fiduciary duties.

The High Court has held that the words "any administrative, regulatory, judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings" in an indemnity provided by an employer to a former employee in a compromise agreement did not cover investigations by the police into alleged criminal behaviour by the employee. 

The Charity Commission is investigating agreements entered into by charities where the property is, or appears to be, empty. The Commission is aware that landlords are approaching charities, and charities are actively marketing their willingness, to enter into tenancy agreements of hard to let property, thereby relieving landlords of the requirement to pay full business rates.

The decision of the High Court in Customer Systems Plc v Ranson, Atherton, Edmond and Offland [2011] EWHC 3304 is authority for the proposition that an employee who learns of confidential matters relating to competition from a potential new employer is not bound to pass the information to his existing employer, as he would then be in breach of confidence to the new employer.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the EAT’s decision that a Methodist minister was an employee.

There will from 1 February 2012 be an increase in the limits on certain employment tribunal awards and other amounts payable under employment legislation.

The Court of Appeal has held that a pre-transfer dismissal can be "connected with the transfer" within the meaning of regulation 7(1) of TUPE 2006, and therefore potentially automatically unfair, regardless of whether the identity of the transferee was known (or even contemplated) when the dismissal was carried out. In doing so, the court preferred the EAT's approach in Harrison Bowden Ltd v Bowden to that in Ibex Trading Co Ltd (In Administration) v Walton and others.

The Ministry of Justice has today issued a consultation document on charging fees in employment tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

The Minister of State for the Department for Work and Pensions has announced the proposed rates for statutory sick pay and statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay for 2012.

The EAT has held that the marriage discrimination provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 protected a woman against less favourable treatment on the ground that she was married to a particular man.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that bonuses that were structured as dividends in an attempt at tax avoidance were taxable only under Schedule E of the income tax provisions, as employment income, and not under Schedule F, as dividends.

The Supreme Court has said that if an oil and gas industry worker has a shift pattern of two weeks working offshore followed by two weeks onshore, periods spent onshore count towards that worker's entitlement to annual leave under Regulation 13 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 -  Russell v Transocean International

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") has handed down its decision in Metropolitan Police v Shaw where it held:

• compensation in whistleblowing cases should be assessed on the same basis as awards in discrimination cases;
• aggravated damages are compensatory and not punitive; and
• aggravated damages represent an aspect of injury to feelings rather than a wholly separate head of damages.

The Court of Appeal has given judgment in Birmingham City Council v Abdulla, in which more than 150 former-employees of the Council assert that the failure to give them pay equal to that of various predominantly male groups of staff, in accordance with the Equal Pay Act 1970, comprises a breach of contract enforceable in the civil courts.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has issued a call for evidence seeking views on the effectiveness of TUPE 2006 given concerns that the regulations gold-plate the Acquired Rights Directive and are overly bureaucratic.

On 23 November 2011, Business Secretary Vince Cable gave a speech at the Engineering Employers' Federation in London outlining the coalition government's plans for employment law reform.