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Employment law brief: 17 April 2026

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After too much Easter nibbling, Ian Smith hops through a flurry of legislative activity & case law
  • Legislative developments dominate, with uprated social security benefits, new measures under the Employment Rights Act 2025 and revised Vento bands for injury to feelings awards.
  • Recent case law, though limited in number, delivers key clarifications on whistleblowing motives, the distinction between reason and motive in discrimination, the scope of COT3 settlements, and the increasingly adversarial approach of employment tribunals.

In spring, a young employment lawyer’s fancy turns to… the statutory instruments containing the uprating of social security benefits, the employment protection maxima and the national minimum wages, along with not one but two commencement orders for the Employment Rights Act 2025. To cap this off we have, not Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs, but the employment tribunal (ET) presidential increases of the Vento scales for awards for injury to feelings. A heady mix indeed.

Perhaps to compensate for this frenetic activity on the legislative front,

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