Welcome to Employment Edit, our pick of the key employment law developments from the last couple of weeks:
- Redundancy consultation - The duty to carry out collective consultation is set to revert to the original position and only arise where 20 or more redundancies are proposed at one 'establishment', rather than across the whole employer. This is as a result of the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in the USDAW and Wilson (Case C-80/14) (more widely known as the Woolworths case). Please see our briefing on collective consultation in redundancy situations for further details.
- Working time - the EAT has held that time spent by a health and safety representative or shop steward attending health and safety committee meetings and other union meetings at their workplace counted as 'working time' for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998. Edwards and another v Encirc Ltd UKEAT/0367/14.
- Holiday pay – In March, the Leicester Employment Tribunal issued its judgement in Lock v British Gas, confirming that commission should be included in the calculation of holiday pay. Please see our briefing on holiday pay and commission for further details. British Gas has now appealed the decision but the appeal is unlikely to be heard by the EAT until later this year. In the meantime, employers should take specialist advice before settling claims or making changes to the way in which holiday pay is calculated.
If you would like more information, or specific advice, please contact Roger Bull, or get in touch with your usual Burges Salmon contact.