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Fostering and family-friendly rights: An employment law blind spot

We have just come to the end of the annual Foster Care Fortnight in the UK (12th-25th May), the Fostering Network’s annual campaign to show how foster care transforms lives....

Flexible working refusals: limited direct claims, significant indirect risks

The right to request flexible working is a day-one right for all employees in the UK. Crucially, however, it is only a right to request flexible working, not a right...

Conditional job offers: be careful before withdrawing them

A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision is a useful reminder that employers should take care when withdrawing job offers, even where the offer is described as “conditional”. The case involved...

Post-employment victimisation: Why HR must handle former employees with care

If HR teams are ever tempted to believe that discrimination risk ends on an employee’s last working day, the recent employment tribunal decision in Ong v Aberystwyth University is a...

The art of (protected) conversations

For HR professionals, ‘protected conversations’ under section 111A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) remain a valuable, but often misunderstood, tool. Designed to facilitate frank, off-the-record discussions about...

Permanent Health Insurance – the employment benefit which causes HR headaches

Permanent health insurance (PHI) is the employment benefit which breaks the rules. It can outlive employment, restrict an employer’s ability to dismiss, and expose businesses to liabilities lasting decades. The...

Day One SSP is here – but it’s worth taking a look at the small print

From 6th April 2026, the right to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) changed in ways that most employees will celebrate and most employers will not. The three-day waiting period is gone....

Assistance dogs and emotional support animals in the workplace

With more employees seeking support for physical and mental health conditions at work, HR professionals are increasingly being asked about animals in the workplace. In particular, it is important to...

When ‘doing the right thing’ goes wrong: lessons from the case of the Waitrose easter egg thief

A widely reported story this week has put a spotlight on a difficult but familiar tension for employers: what happens when an employee breaches policy in an attempt to do...

‘All reasonable steps’: introducing your new HR obsession

During a recent webinar delivered as part of our Employment Rights Act Update Service, Darren Newman made a very interesting point about the way in which the concept of ‘all...

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