- The Government has set out a programme for reforming apprenticeships. This includes establishing an Institute for Apprenticeships, an independent body which will guarantee the integrity of the apprenticeships system. The Institute is due to be launched in April 2017.
2. An Employment Tribunal has held that a CitySprint bicycle courier should be classed as a worker, rather than self-employed, and therefore eligible for basic employment rights including holiday pay (Dewhurst v CitySprint UK Limited).
3. Nearly 100 nail bar workers have been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences as part of a crackdown on illegal working. More than 280 nail bars in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh were targeted by investigators between 27 November and 3 December 2016.
4. The High Court has ruled that lawyers’ notes of interviews with employees and ex-employees of RBS for the purposes of an internal investigation were not protected by legal advice privilege (The RBS Rights Issue Litigation).
5. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a teacher’s dismissal for showing an 18 rated film to 15/16 year olds amounted to discrimination arising from disability. The case involved a teacher with cystic fibrosis whose health had deteriorated due to a high workload. The EAT concluded that the teacher had shown the film when suffering an impaired mental state because of stress that arose from his disability (City of York Council v Grosset).