Backhouse Solicitors’ blog
The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal recently handed down its decision in the so-called 'gay cake' case, more properly known as Lee v Ashers Baking Company. This was an interesting example of how to treat conflicts between different types of discrimination – in this case discrimination [...]
Gender Pay Reporting regulations are due to come into force on 6 April 2017 and will apply to public and private sector employers with 250 or more employees. At the moment, the government is not concerned with forcing smaller employees to report their data but it [...]
The Ministry of Justice has just published its review of the introduction of Employment Tribunal fees in July 2013. Fees have been a controversial subject with employers’ groups claiming that there were too many nuisance claims before fees, and unions and other employee bodies claiming that [...]
Buying a house is one of the biggest investments you will make in your lifetime. In this article we look at how to choose the right legal adviser to make sure the conveyancing process runs smoothly and you don’t get any nasty surprises after you move [...]
Last year the widely publicized “high heels case” hit the headlines when PwC receptionist Nicola Thorp was sent home without pay after refusing to wear high heels at work. A petition causing for this practice to be made illegal was then signed by over 150,000 people, [...]
A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision in the case of Herry v Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council considered whether long term stress can constitute a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. The answer in this case was no – not by itself. In this [...]
Over the past few months we have seen a number of high profile cases of workers in the so called “Gig Economy” suing the companies they work for. In most of the cases the workers have been treated as self-employed contractors by the companies and have [...]
The rise of the “gig economy” where short-term, flexible and somewhat unpredictable working patterns are prevalent at the expense of basic employment rights has hit headlines recently in three high profile employment cases. How does this affect the new and increasing number of startup businesses which [...]
Working out what you need to do when someone dies can be overwhelming. Some things need to be carried out by the executors or administrators of the estate whilst other matters can be dealt with by family or friends. Coming to terms with your loss and [...]
In part two of our “Employers’ Guide to Christmas” we advised that employers could be held vicariously liable for the actions (or lack of) of their employees provided that said actions took place during the course of their employment. Many employers are unaware of this and [...]
