This has led to areas of dispute and interpreting the law wrong can prove costly. The Government has decided to consolidate the law into one set of Regulations. These have been published in draft and the Government has launched a consultation which provides an opportunity to comment on areas where the law is unclear.
One area in desperate need of clarification relates to sleep-ins. Many employers who provide care and support are under pressure to change their pay arrangements for staff working sleep-ins. These staff are typically paid an allowance that is less than the minimum wage because they are allowed to sleep throughout the shift unless they are disturbed. The pressure for change is because two recent cases found that workers should be paid the minimum wage for every hour of a sleep-in. Those cases conflict with the Government’s own guidance on sleep in arrangements which provide “workers are not entitled to the minimum wage while they are on standby or on call and are asleep or entitled to sleep”. The guidance seems to reflect the recommendations made by the Low Pay Commission when the National Minimum Wage was introduced. A Court of Appeal case has previously found that a worker was not entitled to the minimum wage for every hour of a sleep in where the work was treated as unmeasured work. This consultation presents an opportunity for the housing sector to influence the law on this key issue so take your opportunity to contribute. The consultation closes on 15 September 2014.
For further information, please contact Matthew Wort on matthew.wort@anthonycollins.com or 0121 214 3501.
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently made some noteworthy changes to its guidance around data subject access requests (DSARs).
In the fourth part of our series on contract management pitfalls, we look at the risks arising out of varying the terms of construction contracts.
A local authority recently received a "roasting" by the Pensions Ombudsman for their delay in processing an employee’s ill-health retirement pension, following her diagnosis with advanced cancer.
The Times is looking for three or four charities to feature in their editions running in December 2019 and early January 2020.
Cliff Mills defines and talks about the importance of social value in his blog, and its potential within Greater Manchester.
Following a power outage at Anthony Collins Solicitors’ (ACS) Birmingham office, our employees and partners currently have limited functionality, including no access to emails.
Joint ventures present an opportunity for housing associations to build organisational capacity, the revenues from which could help deliver on wider social housing commitments.
Residents are now unable to make applications to prohibit landlords from seeking to recover the cost of legal proceedings through the service charge on behalf of other residents, without consent.
Natalie Barbosa summarises some of the legal challenges facing fundraisers in the charity sector.
We hosted a breakfast roundtable with Insider Midlands magazine that had attendees from a range of organisations addressing housing needs in the Midlands. The discussion explored JVs in more detail.
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