News

The latest HR and employment news.

This tool allows you to:

  • Keep up to date with government proposals.
  • Follow the progress of employment legislation through Parliament.

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Latest items in News

  • New bereavement leave rights to commence in April 2027

    Date:
    24 September 2026

    The Government has announced that new rights to bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss, will commence in April 2027. Having published their response to the consultation on bereavement, which closed in January, ministers said they will introduce the new day-one right for employees who lose a spouse or partner, parent, adult child or sibling.

  • Managers must hold meeting with staff to explain flexible working decision

    Date:
    17 September 2026

    Managers will be required to have a meeting with employees who request flexible working, according to Louise Haigh, first secretary of state. Speaking at the TUC conference this week, Haigh revealed that changes to flexible working legislation, due to take force in 2027, will require employers to "sit down with their employee, properly consider it and explain why".

  • Next wins 'landmark victory' in appeal over equal pay

    Date:
    8 September 2026

    Next has won a "landmark" legal victory in its long-running equal pay case after the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) said it was "not necessary" for it to justify not increasing mostly female retail workers' pay to the same level as warehouse workers who are predominantly men. The appeal judgment backed Next's position that it should not have to pay shop assistants and warehouse operatives the same amount of basic pay, where market and working conditions are very different.

  • B&Q, Five Guys and NHS trusts named for NMW underpayments

    Date:
    4 September 2026

    The Fair Work Agency has named and shamed 658 employers, including B&Q, Five Guys and some NHS trusts, for national minimum wage (NMW) underpayments. More than £4.2 million has been returned to more than 27,600 workers who had been denied the pay they were legally owed, with penalties totalling £7 million issued to the employers responsible.

  • Estate agent awarded £47k for unfair dismissal following maternity leave

    Date:
    3 September 2026

    An estate agent has been awarded more than £47k after she was constructively and unfairly dismissed after returning from maternity leave, a tribunal ruled. Ms Stewart brought claims of unfair dismissal, direct discrimination, discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy and maternity and/or sex, and victimisation or less favourable treatment.

  • Pressure grows for regulation of smart glasses as legal risks are revealed

    Date:
    25 August 2026

    Employers should review their workplace policies as discreet smart glasses create fresh legal risks around data protection, confidentiality, privacy and workplace harassment.

  • Woman lawfully dismissed after working remotely from France

    Date:
    20 August 2026

    A woman has lost her claim for unfair dismissal and breach of contract to an employment tribunal after she was sacked for working remotely from France.

  • Supreme Court issues landmark ruling on part-time worker protections

    Date:
    13 August 2026

    The UK Supreme Court has ruled that part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, and not the sole cause. The landmark ruling could have far-reaching implications for the application of legal protections for part-time workers, according to lawyers.

  • Treasury 'materially contributed' to suicide of employee Chloe Moffat

    Date:
    11 August 2026

    HM Treasury 'materially contributed' to the suicide of its employee Chloe Moffat when she took her own life following an anonymous complaint at work. In announcing her conclusion of an inquest into Moffat's death at Surrey Coroners' Court, assistant coroner Anna Crawford found that the Treasury did not follow its disciplinary procedure in informing Moffat that the outcome of the allegation, if true, would be a written warning and not dismissal.

  • Woman awarded £20k for hotel's indirect sex discrimination

    Date:
    6 August 2026

    A receptionist and mother has been awarded £20,500 for her case of sex discrimination against a Northern Ireland hotel.

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Helen Woods, HR manager, Serco Group plc