Adams Harrison Makes Donation To Saffron Walden Charity In Lieu Of Sending Christmas Cards

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The Partners at Adams Harrison have, for a number of years, donated to good causes at Christmas in lieu of sending Christmas cards. This helps the environment by reducing paper usage and waste, and staff are asked to make suggestions as to which local good cause should receive a donation, and a good cause local to each office is chosen.

Café Cornell Staff with Jenny Carpenter and Louise Taghi of Adams Harrision.

Café Cornell Staff with Jenny Carpenter and Louise Taghi of Adams Harrision.

For December 2021 Café Cornell was chosen to be the recipient of a £200 donation from the Saffron Walden office.

Staff and helpers visited the Adams Harrison office on Wednesday 13 January to receive the cheque.

Practice Manager, Louise Taghi, said

We take our community and social responsibilities very seriously and for a number of years we have made donations to local good causes in lieu of sending Christmas cards. We are conscious of the negative environmental impact of sending Christmas cards and we used the money saved to donate to a good cause. Café Cornell has been operating at Cornell Court in Saffron Walden since May 2021 for residents and general public and also offers a work-based training scheme which is focused on enabling individuals facing challenges and barriers to work to build confidence and to work towards formal qualifications. We were delighted to welcome trainees, staff and volunteers to our ‘covid-safe’ space in our car park on Wednesday so that we could present them with a cheque for £200.

 

Cuts to sick pay for unvaccinated employees

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You may have seen in the media that some large organisations, like Ikea, Next and some Water authorities have amended their sickness absence policies to state that those employees that have to self-isolate as a result of being unvaccinated and a close contact of a positive Covid-19 case will not receive pay. Self-isolation is only a requirement currently following close contact if someone has not received two vaccinations and is not clinically exempt from vaccination. Ikea do have “special mitigating” circumstances in their policy as to when they would allow sick pay.

These organisations are still paying sick pay if an unvaccinated employee contracts Covid-19 and is absent from the work place.

Despite this, these decisions do however, have the potential for discrimination or breach of contract claims by the affected employee. We will have to see if any claims are brought as a result.

We can advise and represent employees and employers in relation to employment related unlawful discrimination.

Contact [email protected] to arrange a consultation with Jennifer Carpenter, our solicitor and managing partner who has 20 plus years’ experience of practicing employment law.

Charity Donations Instead of Christmas Cards

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The partners of Adams Harrison have decided that in lieu of sending corporate Christmas cards they will be donating the money normally spent to three local charities  – REACH Haverhill; The John Huntingdon’s Charity in Sawston and Café Cornell in Saffron Walden. In addition to supporting local charities this is also incorporating the firm’s commitment to reduce it’s environmental impact. If you wish to donate to any of these great charities please click on one of the images below to go directly to their website.

Reach Charity Haverhill John Huntingdon's Charity SawstonCafe Cornell Saffron Walden

Mock Trial In Haverhill

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Mock Trial Samuel Ward Academy

Mock Trial Samuel Ward Academy Haverhill

Jennifer Carpenter from Adams Harrison attended Samuel Ward Academy secondary school in Haverhill yesterday and conducted a Magistrates’ court mock trial with students interested in a career in law. Kerrie Cavilla Perkins the assistant headteacher said;

Thank you so much for yesterday and all of the time it took to prepare. It was so professional and memorable for our students – they all felt very lucky to take part and you and Adams Harrison got a special mention in the open eve talk last night!

The End Of Furlough

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Sitting at my laptop at midnight on Monday 22nd March 2020 learning about “furlough” provisions for the first time felt so surreal as an employment lawyer. The idea that you could ask your employees to go home and they would get paid (albeit reduced pay) was so novel. It was unclear when the Government would implement a method for employers to recoup the salaries paid at that time. Now we are rapidly approaching the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) introduced by the Government to pay furloughed workers and employees.

The whole purpose and intention of the CJRS was to assist employers to preserve as many jobs as possible so redundancies were not made. However, the added incentive of the Job Retention Bonus where the Chancellor originally announced in July 2020 that there would be £1,000 bonus paid to employers per every employee brought back was withdrawn when CJRS was extended. Similarly, the Job Support Scheme that was previously intended to replace CJRS has been “postponed”. It is not clear at this time what will happen with either.

Any claims under CJRS for September 2021 pay must be claimed by no later than 14th October 2021 by employers.

What are the likely consequences now the CJRS is ending on 30th September 2021?

  • We may see an increase in redundancies. Redundancy is a permitted fair reason to dismiss but only if there is a genuine redundancy situation and the employer makes the decision to dismiss for that reason fairly.
  • Employers may seek to keep an employee/worker’s pay the same as whilst on furlough – whether they can do this will depend on the wording of the contract of employment and any written Furlough Leave Agreement that was put in place. In most situations, however it is likely to result in a breach of contract/constructive dismissal claim by the employee.
  • Employees being asked to reduce hours – again, this is unlikely to be permissible unless the employee gives express consent.

The Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) carried out a survey that showed that 22% of employers had made changes to their employee’s terms and conditions since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The most common changes were to workplace, hours and pay.

Whether you are an employee facing changes to your employment circumstances; or an employer wondering what to do next, and more importantly, what the law will permit you to do, then please get in touch with us for specialist employment law advice.

[email protected]

Jennifer Carpenter
Solicitor – Employment law specialism
Managing Partner

Samuel Ward Academy Careers Fayre

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Jennifer Carpenter and Anton Bilinski At Samuel Ward Academy Careers Fayre 2021Jennifer Carpenter and Anton Bilinski attended the Samuel Ward Academy careers fayre in Haverhill.

Jennifer said;

We met year 7 to 13 – very interested and engaging students. Exciting to know some could be future lawyers. 

Death and Digital Assets

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Our lives are now carried out online far more than they were even 10 years ago.

E-mail accounts, Paypal accounts, Bitcoin, Etsy accounts, blogs, digital photos, media players, gaming accounts, social media accounts etc are all digital assets.

However, there is no actual definition of what a digital asset is.

What happens to those digital assets after your death? How can you protect those assets and not lose sentimental or financially viable items?

Unfortunately, the law is very unclear in this regard and there is no correct answer. There is no consistency between service providers on how they deal with these items. Some social media platforms can be taken offline, frozen or used as a memorial. Apple provide a legacy feature allowing someone to access their account after their death. Some of these digital assets are not deemed to be owned by you and some view email as information rather than an asset. It may be necessary to obtain a court order to gain access to such accounts. This is time consuming and expensive. Cryptocurrency i.e. Bitcoin is an asset that can only be accessed with a passkey. It is vitally important to leave a record of your passkey so that the account can be accessed after your death.

What you can do:-

  • Make a comprehensive list of your digital assets
  • Keep your passwords and other details in a password manager and provide the login details to your executor or leave a sealed envelope with your Will. Ensure you update the details in the manager when you update your password or other information.

CQS Re-accreditation July 2021 to 2022

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We are delighted to announce that we have been reaccredited from July 2021 – July 2022 by the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS), which is a recognised quality standard for residential conveyancing practices.

This shows our clients and other third parties that we have the expertise to deliver nationally recognised quality residential conveyancing advice; use standardised processes to recognise and reduce risks and that we inform clients about what to expect when using our conveyancing services.

The accreditation also gives greater access to lenders, and demonstrates that we can provide residential conveyancing advice of the level expected by clients, lenders and the wider residential conveyancing community.

The award is testament to the dedication and expertise of our Conveyancing department who have worked through the additional challenges of the Pandemic, as well as managing additional high volume workflows due to Stamp Duty Land Tax reductions over the past year.

Adams Harrison CQS Certificate july 21-22

Haverhill Show July 2021

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We were delighted to be at yesterday’s Haverhill Show, where we sponsored the music and contributed to funds raised for local charities and good causes for the town. Adams Harrison At Haverhill Show July 2021 01 Adams Harrison At Haverhill Show July 2021 02 Adams Harrison At Haverhill Show July 2021 03 Adams Harrison At Haverhill Show July 2021 04

Calls For Long Covid To Be Recognised As A Disability

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The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called for long Covid to be recognised as a disability and for Covid-19 to be classified as an occupational disease, a move that would grant legislative protections and access to compensation for workers.

A TUC report demonstrated that 5% of those questioned revealed that they had lost their jobs as a result of the impacts of long COVID.

Under the Equality Act 2010 it is unlawful discrimination to treat an employee or worker less favourably due to a “protected characteristic”. Disability is a named protected characteristic under the Act. Some conditions and diseases are automatically deemed by legislation to amount to a disability, including cancer, multiple sclerosis and blindness. Other conditions can be regarded as a disability, and therefore afforded the protection of the Equality Act 2010, but only if the definition in section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 is made out. This poses four essential questions:-

  • Does the person have a physical or mental impairment?
  • Does that impairment have an adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities?
  • Is that effect substantial?
  • Is that effect long-term?

It is necessary to carefully analyse each question and support it with medical evidence. It is entirely possible that a person with long Covid could satisfy the above requirements. But it would give individuals with the condition much greater protection if it was one of the conditions deemed to be a disability, like cancer. The hoops in section 6 would then not have to be gone through.

There are various ways in which an employer can unlawfully discriminate as a result of a person’s disability. This protects workers, employees and job applicants:-

Direct disability discrimination: being treating less favourably than others because of a disability.
Discrimination arising from a disability: treating someone unfavourably because of something arising in consequence of disability without objective justification.

Indirect disability discrimination: Applying a provision, criterion or practice that disadvantages someone with a disability without objective justification.

Reasonable adjustments: Failing to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments where a person with a disability is placed at a substantial disadvantage.

Harassment: subjecting someone to harassment related to disability.

Victimisation: Victimising someone because they have made or intend to make a disability discrimination complaint, or because they have done or intend to do other things in connection with the Equality Act 2010.

For detailed advice on all types of discrimination and related claims please contact our employment specialist, Jennifer Carpenter, solicitor and partner.