Newsletter – August 2023

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us in our end of month newsletter. We hope you’ll enjoy one of the few remaining bank holiday weekends we have for this year as we move into September. For anyone that missed our July newsletter you can find that here. This month we are looking at some emerging stories around Manchester United, the introduction of new law surrounding tips, and the recent collapse of Wilko.

 

Manchester United part ways with Mason Greenwood

As many of you will already be aware, the footballer Mason Greenwood has recently had his charges of rape, assault, and domestic violence dropped after the victim withdrew her cooperation with the CPS. While the pressure placed on victims of sexual crimes lies outside of what we are looking at, there are important employment and contractual concepts that we can look at to infer what has happened between the footballer and the club.

For a dismissal for alleged misconduct the dismissal must be sufficiently approximate to warrant the dismissal. Failing to act quickly in response to the knowledge of misconduct amounts to acceptance by the employer of the situation. This raises the question that, if Manchester United had conducted an investigation and found the allegations merit-worthy, why has it taken then almost 6 months in order to part ways with the footballer?

We would suggest that there are two potential options. The first is that the club was waiting to take the temperature of the public outcry prior to making any announcement. Employers do not need to wait for the outcome of criminal investigations to come to their own conclusions on an issue. If the club had a genuine belief after conducting their investigations, they could have terminated his contract shortly thereafter. Their investigation either couldn’t show sufficient evidence that he had committed the alleged offences, or they did, but the club used the criminal investigation outcome to shield themselves from making a decision.

The second option is that having waited too long in order for the dismissal to be done fairly, they have agreed terms of termination via a settlement. Given the well known value of footballers contracts one can only imagine the amount that was included in that agreement.

 

Just the Tips

For anyone that has had to ask whether the tips go to the staff or the owners, there is good news! Legislation which has been given royal assent but is not yet in force would require employers to provide all tips, gratuities, and service charges to staff directly without deductions.

This follows an estimate that around 3% to 5% of tips are withheld by the employer. While some of these may come from processing fees, which represent around 1% to 3% of the transaction, this new legislation would require employers to gross up the difference to ensure that the employee receives the full amount minus tax and national insurance. The legislation also requires tips to be paid in full to the employee by the end of the month following when they were paid, with the intention assumed to be that they are included in the following month’s pay.

Other requirements include having a written policy for how these payments are handled and recording on a three month rolling basis.

If your business or a business you know are concerned about these changes or any other upcoming amendments to legislation, please contact a member of our team who will be able to assist you.

 

Woes of Wilko

We have heard this month that the budget store Wilko has collapsed, putting over 12,000 jobs at risk. With administrators being appointed the public dissection of the store has begun.

Despite their presence on a lot of high streets, the competition has left the stores struggling against discount shops like B&M, who have been increasing their market share progressively over the past few years. Despite the fondness shown towards the brand by the public, this hasn’t translated through to the company sales.

While the employees are still working for the time being, the question looms for them of what their next steps are. With the sheer number of staff involved, an extended collective redundancy process will begin in the coming weeks, which will seek to agree a position between the staff and the company.

Should you or someone you know require assistance with a redundancy, collective or otherwise, please contact one of our staff who will be able to assist you.

 

Lighter Side of the News – Male Nurse Told to Man Up

In this month’s lighter side of the news we look at a recent claim wherein a male nurse, Mr Marsh, won a sex discrimination claim against the NHS. Being the only male within his health visitor team, he was routinely the butt of jokes by the female staff, including from his boss Ms Sanchez!

When leaving meetings Ms Sanchez would exit shouting ‘goodbye ladies’, intentionally excluding the single male member of staff or even implying that he was himself part of the ‘ladies’. The last straw came when  he was told by his boss that he ‘needed to man up’ during a heated meeting, which ironically, included concerns about poor staff morale!

The Tribunal found that the comment was not only inappropriate but also related to a protected characteristic of sex.

Sometimes workplace jokes just don’t land, or worse they do land but leave an unintended bruise, which creates an intimidating or degrading environment.

 

Feedback of The Week

This week’s feedback comes from one of Phil’s clients, all the team  at PJH Law very much appreciate his kind words:

“I found all the PJH Law team very responsive, professional and easy to work with. This was from my 1st contact to the conclusion of the work they did for me.

I could not have asked for any more…. Thanks you”