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09 March 2017 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7737 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Employment law brief: 9 March 2017

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Ian Smith tackles Pimlico Plumbers, the gig economy & the legal horror of a claim too far
  • Application of the “worker” definition to the “gig economy”.
  • Implication of implied terms into contracts of employment.
  • How even a concept as wide as religion or belief discrimination has some boundaries.

February has been a busy month on the legislative front, with the commencement of the new rules on trade union balloting and political funds on 1 March and the new Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/172) coming into force on 6 April. Also on the latter date, the annual Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2017 (SI 2017/175) raises the maximum basic award/statutory redundancy payment to £14,670 and the maximum compensatory award to £80,541, giving a normal maximum for unfair dismissal of £95,211.

On the case law front, of the three chosen for this column two are concerned with important fundamentals of individual employment law, namely the application of the “worker” definition to what is increasingly referred

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