Employment Law Update - February 2019

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Employment Law February 2019 Welcome to our February 2019 e-bulletin. As usual we will be running our spring Essential Employment Law Seminar in March in both our Glasgow and Edinburgh offices. Read on for details of how to book your place at these popular seminars.

In addition to details of our Essential Employment Law seminar, this month we are also looking at:• • • • • • •

Consultation on extending redundancy protections. Whistleblowing - whether a complaint of defamation can be a protected disclosure. National Minimum Wage - where does it go wrong? Gender pay gap countdown. International Women's Day event - How Dads Impact Gender Equality. What happens to immigration (including rights to work) in the event of a no deal Brexit? Recently published guidance for employers on age discrimination, performance management, payslips and flexible working. • Our regular round up of employment law in the news. And • In our Blog of the Month Chris Harte looks at how Brexit will impact on the fundamentals of business.


You can download our free Employment Law App MF HR Mobile for both Android and iPhone. This includes calculators for unfair dismissal awards, maternity pay and statutory redundancy payments, as well as key employment law facts, figures and fingertip guides. It also includes this monthly eBulletin. If you have any questions on the content of this ebulletin or if you would like to discuss any other employment issue then please contact innes.clark@morton-fraser.com on 0131 247 1181 or lindsey.cartwright@morton-fraser.com on 0141 274 1141.

Essential Employment Law Seminar - Managing Difficult Employees plus Registering EU Nationals We will be running our latest Essential Employment Law Seminar in both our Edinburgh and Glasgow offices in March. This seminar will focus on managing difficult employees and we will look at our top five tricky scenarios from an employment law perspective that can arise when dealing with a difficult employee including how to manage an employee with a bad attitude that otherwise performs their role satisfactory, how to deal with an employee who has a pattern of performance which improves after a warning and then dips after that warning has expired and how to deal with the situation where an employee goes off sick with stress when you are dealing with a disciplinary or grievance issue. In addition, with Brexit coming ever closer we will also look briefly at what is involved in registering EU national employees to protect their right to work.The dates for the seminar are:• 12 March at 8.30am in our Glasgow office; and • 13 March at 5.30pm in our Edinburgh office. The seminar will last approximately one hour, including questions and answers, with an opportunity for networking before and after. Registration will take place from 5:00pm for a 5:30pm start for the evening seminar in Edinburgh and 8:00am for an 8:30am start for the breakfast seminar in Glasgow. Please click on the links above to book.

Consultation on extending redundancy protection for women and new parents launched The consultation follows recommendations made by the Women and Equalities Committee and the Taylor Review.

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Defamation complaint was not a protected disclosure


The EAT has found a complaint about defamation could be a protected disclosure but it did not meet the public interest test.

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National Minimum Wage - where does it go wrong? It seems even employers with the best of intentions can't always get it right.

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International Women's Day event - How Dads Impact Gender Equality We would be delighted if you could join Fathers Network Scotland and Business in the Community this International Women's Day - Friday 8 March for an event and networking lunch.

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Gender Pay Gap Countdown 4 April 2019 sees the end of the second year of gender pay gap reporting for private and third sector organisations (or 31 March for the public sector).

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What happens to immigration (including rights to work) in the event of a no deal Brexit? With Brexit fast approaching, the UK Government have announced transitional measures for immigration (including in relation to rights to work) in the event of a no deal Brexit.

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New Legislation, Guidance & Consultations We look at recently published guidance for employers on age discrimination, performance management, payslips and flexible working.

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Employment law in the news In our regular slot we look at the key cases and other employment law issues that have made the news headlines over the past few weeks.

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Blog of the Month Don't forget, you can keep up to date with all our blogs and content in the Knowledge hub. In our blog of the month this month Chris Harte looks at how Brexit will impact on the fundamentals of business.


You can also follow Innes on Twitter.

Welcome To Clarity At Morton Fraser we are grounded in a simple, unifying principle: clarity. It's what sets us apart from the rest and what gives you the service that you value and rely on. Highly appropriate then, that we are embarking on a campaign that aims to promote these very values. Let us take this opportunity to welcome you to clarity. Click on the video below to see our approach to legal advice from, quite literally, every angle‌

Employment Law Guide & Employment Timeline To see our Brief Guide to Employment Law in Scotland, England and Wales, click here. For details of upcoming changes in employment law, see our Updated Employment Law Reform Timeline.

Employment Law Fact Card


Our Employment Law Fact Card is full of useful information for employers including disciplinary and redundancy checklists, Employment Tribunal award limits, family friendly leave entitlements and national minimum wage rates. If you would like a hard copy of our free Fact Card please email us at employment@mortonfraser.com with your name and postal address and we will send it on to you. Alternatively, you can access an electronic version here. You can also find lots of useful employment law information on our free iPhone app which is available to download from the App Store. For further details and a link to the download see: MF HR Mobile - Our Employment Law App "...the app is gorgeous, very well designed with great functionality and looks." - Legal IT Insider (www.legaltechnology.com)

Welcome to the big days and the day-to-day - How we help businesses Our clients range from start-ups through SMEs to large corporations. Click on the image below to find out how we can support your organisation.


Employment Protection Package Our Employment Protection Package includes: • An annual review to ensure that your employment contracts and handbook are fully compliant; • On-going access to one of our employment lawyers within our highly rated employment law team; • Insurance cover against the risk of most Employment Tribunal awards; and • Affordable monthly fixed fee payments. With the possibility of significant Tribunal awards, management time is often diverted from the core business to deal with workplace issues and claims. We can provide the day to day employment advice that you require whilst providing insurance against the risk of Employment Tribunal claims. You will be assigned a specialist employment lawyer dedicated to your organisation, someone you can work with and who can really get to know you and your business. We do not want to try and tie your organisation into this package for any fixed period of time and you are free to end the contract at any time. Our advice is legally privileged. This is often not the case with other advisors even if they are labelled as "Legal Advisors". In the event that advice is not legally privileged then the advice that you have been given is admissible as evidence before the Employment Tribunal which may put you at a disadvantage in contentious matters. You may want to think about that if you are considering a different kind of package. Our costs will always be clear and that is guaranteed. Payment for our Employment Protection Package is made by way of affordable monthly fixed fee payments. For a no obligation quote please email the following information to us at employment@mortonfraser.com


• current headcount • total Annual Wage roll during last 12 months (inclusive of Employer's NI, the costs paid to Workers, Bonuses and Salaries paid to Directors) • details of any employment tribunal claims against your organisation in the last 5 years including the relevant dates. If this package does not sound quite right for your organisation, we would be pleased to discuss the other options available for employment law advice. For further information please contact Innes Clark on 0131 247 1181 or at innes.clark@mortonfraser.com.

WELCOME TO CLARITY Clear legal advice for businesses, public sector, individuals and families. Edinburgh: 0131 247 1000 Glasgow: 0141 274 1100 info@morton-fraser.com

Terms and Conditions | www.morton-fraser.com | Manage Preferences The contents of this update are for information only and are not intended to be construed as legal advice. Morton Fraser accepts no responsibility for the content of any third party websites to which this update refers.

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