Newsletter November 2023

Hello and thank you for joining us for our November newsletter where we have a roundup of some employment related news stories. This month we’ve seen National Minimum Wage rates are to increase from April 2024, a former Man City player bringing a claim against the club for unpaid wages, and in our lighter side of the news, a survey showing 33% of those working from home opting to wear their pyjamas on shift!

For those of you that missed our October newsletter you can find it here.

National Minimum/Living Wage Increase 2024

The Government announced as part of the Autumn Statement that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) rates will be increasing from 1^st April 2024.  This will be the largest ever increase to the minimum wage after the Government accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations.

The NLW is the statutory minimum wage for workers currently aged 23 and over; this threshold was lowered to 23 from 25 in April 2021 and is to be lowered again to 21 from April 2024. The NLW is different to the UK Living Wage and the London Living Wage which are voluntary pay benchmarks that are not legally binding and allow employers the discretion to sign up to if they wish.

The increases to NMW and NLW to take effect from 1^st April 2024 are:

The Low Pay Commission recommended the above NLW rate in an attempt to meet the Government’s target for the NLW to reach two-thirds of median earnings in 2024. However, with the economy presently facing a number of challenges, these increases might be difficult for many employers to meet.

Employment Tribunal Claim against Man City

A former Manchester City player, Benjamin Mendy, has filed a “multi-million-pound” claim with the Employment Tribunal claiming “unlawful deductions from wages” for pay owed from September 2021 to the end of his contract in June 2023. The player last played for the club in August 2021 and was suspended following several charges for sexual offences against women.

The jury found the footballer not guilty of four charges but were unable to reach verdicts on two other charges which led to a retrial in July at Chester Crown Court. He was again subsequently acquitted of both charges.

The club did not pay the player’s wages because they deemed him unavailable for work during his bail, trial and retrial.  Mr Mendy spent over four months in custody before being bailed in January 2022 with conditions preventing him from entering the county of Greater Manchester, where he would be required to train and play home matches.

After failing to resolve the dispute with the club, the matter has been filed as a claim with the Employment Tribunal.

Lighter Side of the News – 33% of work from home workers, wear their PJs

Employment firm ‘Indeed’ carried out a survey of over 1,000 employees and 500 employers in the UK showing 33% of workers who WFH are wearing their pyjamas during shift hours! On average, employees are wearing pjs 46 days a year with one in twelve wearing their pjs every day.

More than half of workers admitted to wearing scruffier clothes on the bottom half and even included those attending interviews on video calls. One woman admitted she wore her dressing gown every day and was completely unaware how much weight she was putting on due to the loose-fitting belt!

Half of the employers surveyed said staff have become too casual and pjs should be avoided, closely followed by unwashed or messy hair and tracksuit bottoms.

Let’s hope we don’t have to start off video interviews by asking the interviewee to stand up to see if they are wearing tracksuit bottoms with a shirt and tie!

Feedback of the Week

Collette, one of our newly qualified solicitors has received some lovely feedback this week.

L N said:

“We are very impressed with how we were treated by Collette. She acted in a very professional manner and spoke so we understood everything, with humour at times (we are after all, all human.)

For our first time to engage with a solicitor, it was as pleasant an experience as I guess we could have,  it having been a virtual meeting.

Thank you for your assistance.”