Épisodes

  • Understanding the Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act 2023

    Understanding the Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act 2023
    May 22 2025

    Supporting links

    Neonatal care leave and pay from 6 April 2025 - TLT LLP

    What the law says - Neonatal care leave and pay - Acas

    Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023
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    34 min
  • What to expect in 2025?

    What to expect in 2025?
    Feb 13 2025
    From enhanced worker protections to evolving rights for parents and carers, 2025 is shaping up to be an interesting year for both employers and employees. In the latest episode of Employment Law Focus, Charlie Rae and Amy Stokes, both partners at TLT discuss employment law developments to look out for in 2025. Key topics include: An update on the Employment Rights Bill and the Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill The uplift to the protective award for failure to comply with the Statutory Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement. Increases to statutory rates & national minimum wage and changes to national insurance. The Neonatal Care Leave & Pay Act 2023. The failure to prevent fraud offence coming into force in September 2025. The possibility of paid leave for domestic abuse victims as proposed in a new private member's bill. Listen now.
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    28 min
  • Labour's Employment Rights Bill

    Labour's Employment Rights Bill
    Dec 4 2024
    Amy: Hello and welcome to the Employment Law Focus podcast. I'm Amy Stokes. Charlie: And I'm Charlie Ray Amy: and we're both employment law partners at TLT and today we're going to be discussing the Employment Rights Bill and well all 150 pages of it, well not quite but what we've done is we have discussed amongst ourselves Charlie and I and pulled out our top 10 takeaways from it. By way of background, this was introduced to Parliament on the 10th of October and is the first phase of delivering the government's plan to make work pay. It brings in 28 individual employment law reforms. And the bill is a wish list of reforms, and it builds in some of the labour manifesto but a watered down version so it's not quite set in stone. Despite the headlines in the papers, it's a while before any of these changes are going to happen. Much of the details are going to be provided via regulations which won't be passed until consultation with stakeholders has concluded. Four of those consultations were very quickly turned around and have actually already started. Those include on zero hours contracts and their application to agency workers, beefing up the remedies for collective redundancy consultation, all the updates to trade union legislation and also statutory sick pay. The government doesn't expect to start consultation however for the rest of the reforms until 2025, with the result that most reforms in the bill will not take place until we anticipate at least 2026, although there's been no commitment on that just yet. The bills also got to go through both houses of parliament before it gains royal assent and therefore may be changed along the way after the consultations as well. So the bottom line is really that the proposals in the bill might well change and employers are going to have plenty of time to feed into the proposals and to prepare for them. What Charlie and I have done to prepare for this podcast today is that we've picked out what we think are the most interesting elements of the bill, the reforms to the bill, primarily to employers. And we're going to run through them, not in the order of importance, just kind of in a more general order, just to give you a flavour of what they are. So, we'll talk through the background to them, the detail of the reforms, to give you a bit of an explainer on those. And then we're going to give you some of our insights from practice about what we think the real impact of those are going to be. So, Charlie, do you want to kick us off with your first one? Charlie: Yeah, we're going to start with probably what's been the main headline grabber from the bill, which is the proposal to remove the unfair dismissal qualifying period. Now, as we know, at the moment, we've had for some time a two -year qualifying period to be able to claim ordinary unfair dismissal. That doesn't take into account automatic unfair dismissals like whistleblowing, for example, where you don't need the two-year service, but for most unfair dismissal claims, two years service is required. So the idea is that it's going to become a day one right, and that so long as you started work from day one, you will have the right to claim unfair dismissal. The government are proposing to consult on introducing a new statutory probation period. So, the idea is that during that probation period, an employee could be dismissed using a lighter touch process, where if the dismissal is because of capability, or conduct, or contravention of illegal duty, or potentially for some other substantial reason, which are all reasons that we're familiar with now, that that would be a valid reason for an employer to terminate at the end of this probation period. We need some detail on this, obviously, and one suggestion is that a redundancy dismissal wouldn't be subject to this lighter touch dismissal as a result of the statutory probation period. So it will be interesting to see how that one plays out. The suggestion is that the government's preference is to have a nine -month probation period in this so -called initial period of employment and I think the indication is that they would expect an employer to at least hold a meeting with the employee to explain the concerns about say their performance if that's the reason before making a decision to dismiss. So, it's going to be interesting to see how the government will develop that. Amy: Yeah it's really interesting actually Charlie, I think that there's going to be the consultation on that's going to bring out some interesting points. But actually, it sounds like it's going to have a really big impact on employers. What do you think in practice that's really going to be? Charlie: Certainly one of the implications is likely to be that more litigation may follow as a result of widening out the net to who it covers. I saw a statistic that suggests that this will grant unfair dismissal rights to another 9 million employees. So, straight away,...
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    42 min
  • Flexible Working

    Flexible Working
    May 20 2024

    In the latest episode of our Employment Law focus podcast, Partner, Jonathan Rennie, and Knowledge Lawyer, Victoria Wenn, discuss the recent reforms to flexible working regulations that took effect on 6th April 2024. 

    Also covered are the legal and practical implications of adopting a four-day working week, something that has been introduced in several other countries, with pilots taking place in the UK already with some success. 

    This episode​​​​​​​ looks at:

    • The 6th of April reforms to flexible working requests, what this means for employers, and employees.
    • What employers need to consider before denying a flexible working request.
    • A review of ‘Wilson v FCA’, one of the first cases to consider a flexible working request to work remotely post pandemic.
    • The four-day working week from an employment law perspective, with part time workers, contracts, and holiday allowance all likely to be affected.
    • Plus, a discussion on ‘Manjang v Uber Eats’, and how AI poses the potential for discrimination in automated decision making. 
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    23 min
  • Employment Law Focus: AI and employment law

    Employment Law Focus: AI and employment law
    Oct 24 2023

    In this episode Jonathan Rennie, partner at TLT is joined by Sarah Maddock, senior knowledge lawyer at TLT and Emma Erskine-Fox, managing associate in the Technology and Intellectual Property team at TLT to look at the impact of AI on employment law and discuss:

    • Key differences between various types of AI technologies.
    • Why generative AI like ChatGPT is gaining increased attention.
    • How AI tools be used to enhance workplace productivity.
    • How employers can address the potential risks and challenges associated with AI in decision-making.
    • How AI systems affect the fairness and reasonableness of decisions.
    • Data protection considerations and legal obligations for employers when using AI for decision-making and information processing.
    • How organisations can establish effective governance and policies around AI technology.
    • Role of training and transparency in the responsible use of AI in the workplace.
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    29 min
  • Menopause in the Workplace: empowering employers and supporting employees

    Menopause in the Workplace: empowering employers and supporting employees
    Jul 13 2023

    In today's workforce, where one in three workers is over 50 and 80% of women aged 45 to 55 are employed, it is essential for employers to recognise and address the impact of menopause. Many employees undergoing this natural transition report adverse effects on their work, and statistics reveal a rise in litigation concerning menopause-related issues.

    In this episode, hosted by Leeanne Armstrong, legal director at TLT, we’re joined by Stephanie Reid from Menopause Spring and Louise Chopra, partner at TLT to discuss the significance of supporting employees experiencing menopause and share invaluable strategies for creating a supportive work environment including:

    • Why must employers ensure they are equipped to effectively deal with menopause in the workplace?
    • What are the expectations of menopausal individuals from their employers?
    • How can employers meet those expectations, including in terms of policy development and initiatives?
    • What were the key objectives and challenges for TLT in devising a menopause strategy in the workplace?
    • Our key takeaways for employers on addressing the impact of menopause and implementing effective strategies in the workplace.

    Further reading:

    Menopause and the workplace: Government Response to the Committee’s First Report of Session 2022–2023

    Mrs M Rooney v Leicester City Council

    A v Bonmarche Ltd

    BS 30416, Menstruation, menstrual health and menopause in the workplace

    TLT Menopause Toolkit for employers

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    If you liked the podcast, please rate and review it. It helps others to know that it's worth a listen. You can subscribe so you know when we're back again and you can email us feedback and ideas for future episodes at emplawpodcast@tlt.com and you can also follow us and speak to us on Twitter @TLT_Employment
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    26 min
  • Thinking Differently: neurodiversity and work

    Thinking Differently: neurodiversity and work
    Mar 16 2023

    In the latest episode of our Employment Law Focus podcast, we look at neurodiversity, a range of conditions which affect how people think, process and interpret information. This affects around 15% of people but, until fairly recently, has not been widely considered in the workplace.

    Traditional workplaces are often designed by and for a neurotypical society, which can negatively affect employees who are neurodivergent and prevent them from thriving at work. Understanding the differing needs of each person in your workplace will help to adjust practises to ensure every employee is equipped to perform to the best of their ability.

    Jonathan Rennie and Sarah Maddock discuss the important role that employers play in the lives of people who are neurodivergent and what best practice can look like in the modern workplace.

    We look at:

    • What neurodiversity actually means
    • Benefits from attracting candidates who are neurodivergent
    • Supporting development at work
    • How employers can manage the hidden nature of these conditions
    • What additional things need to be considered if an employment tribunal claimant has a neurodiverse condition

    Further reading

    Bupa – supporting neurodiversity in the workplace

    CIPD – neurodiversity at work

    ACAS – webinar – inclusive workplaces: making changes to better support neurodiversity

    Neurodivergent women sought for jobs at GCHQ and BAE Systems

    Noor v Foreign & Commonwealth Office

    Sherbourne v Npower

    ***

    Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email emplawpodcast@tltsolicitors.com or tweet us using #TLTemploymentpodcast or @TLT_Employment

    You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

    Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

    If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.
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    26 min
  • Winter 2022 and the cost of living crisis

    Winter 2022 and the cost of living crisis
    Dec 8 2022

    Alongside the usual risks and issues – from seasonal bugs to Christmas parties – the “permacrisis” means that in-house legal and HR teams will face a plethora of new considerations this winter. In this episode, Jonathan Rennie and Grace Caldicott discuss everything from writing hardship policies and offering early access to wages, to the pros and cons of different kinds of flexible working policies and how to normalise conversations about money.

    They also offer advice on:

    • What to do if an employee starts a second job
    • The role of communication in health and wellbeing
    • Avoiding bias and minimising the risk of discrimination claims
    • Interpreting contract terms

    Our news section highlights a new pay transparency law in New York, while our listener’s question touches on Elon Musk’s email to Twitter staff asking them to commit to working “long hours at high intensity” and being “extremely hardcore”.

    Further reading:

    • CIPD: Cost of living crisis
    • CIPD: Tackling in-work poverty
    • HSE: Home working
    • TLT: Bellman Christmas party ruling

    ***

    Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email emplawpodcast@tltsolicitors.com or tweet us using #TLTemploymentpodcast or @TLT_Employment

    You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

    Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

    If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.
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    28 min