Employment Matters - February 2022

Published 4 February 2022

DAC Beachcroft's Employment Matters focuses on some of the most interesting cases and events occurring within the Employment Law sector.

Our pick of this month’s developments include holiday pay, flexible working and worker status issues.

1. Holiday pay: The right to be paid for annual leave that has been taken on an unpaid basis carries over to the next holiday year

In an important case on holiday pay, the Court of Appeal has held that workers who have taken annual holiday on an unpaid basis can carry the right to be paid for annual leave from one holiday year to the next.

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2. Vicarious liability: Is an employer liable for injuries caused by its employees’ practical jokes?

The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision that an employer was neither negligent nor vicariously liable when an employee seriously injured a contractor when a practical joke went wrong.

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3. Employment status: Personal service and the right of substitution

The EAT has upheld a decision that individual owner driver franchisees who provided delivery services were neither employees nor workers.

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4. Flexible working applications: Employers must have explicit employee consent to any extension of a flexible working decision period

The EAT has overturned an employment tribunal judgment, finding that an employee’s agreement to attend a flexible working appeal meeting outside the three month statutory time limit for making a decision did not amount to consent to an extension of the decision period.

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5. What’s on the employment law horizon?

We have summarised expected changes in legislation to look out for in 2022 and the position on various outstanding consultations.  These possible changes are in addition to the usual uplifts to the national living wage, SSP, statutory payments for family leave and unfair dismissal compensation which will increase in April 2022.

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