The media have been reporting Asda’s announcement that unless staff sign a new, less favourable employment contract by 2nd November, their employment will be terminated. The new contract increases wages to £9 per hour but removes long-service benefits, paid...

  It was recently reported to us that the bookmaker, Betfred, had failed to take account of overtime when calculating holiday pay for some of its staff, many of whom work overtime on a regular basis. The company blamed the error on a payroll system failure, but...

  Almost all of us now carry mobile phones capable of making audio recordings. It’s not surprising that, increasingly, Affinity is presented with audio files which have been made covertly by members during meetings with their employers.The majority of these...

  In 2018, we were contacted by a number of members who, a number of years ago, had been transferred under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) from Lloyds Bank to Mitie.Mitie had announced that these staff were to be...

  That is how much the botched IT migration has cost TSB so far according to the latest set of financial results.TSB made a £120.5 million loss for the nine months to September. On the back of the meltdown, Sabadell, TSB’s owner, has seen its share price fall by...

The Problem This subject is undeniably dry and the implications for most people will not be obvious! Yet, whether they realise it or not, restrictive covenants are a major issue in the employment contracts of many of our members. I said in my last newsletter that it...

The Problem Starting new jobs can be exciting if challenging and quite rightly most people approach them with enthusiasm and optimism. No one wants to put a damper on that but there are some realities that it’s worth thinking about before starting a new job. If you...

The Union has won an important Employment Tribunal case for a member sacked by Lloyds Bank. Although the case involved Lloyds, all members should spend the time reading what happened because the case demonstrates very clearly how many companies fail to deal fairly...

The Concept Constructive dismissal is much misunderstood but, in simple terms, occurs where the action of an employer is so intolerable that the employee could not reasonably be expected to remain in its employ. In that situation the employer is viewed as having...

The Concept The idea behind the law is that dismissals should be fair and reasonable in all the circumstances. That sounds quite reasonable of course but in practice the whole system of enforcing fairness is beyond the reach of most ordinary workers. The Problems One...

• “I never thought they would do it to me.” • “I didn’t expect it to go any further.” • “I thought I could trust my manager.” • “No one told me they thought I was an under-performer.” We hear these comments every week and are not surprised by members’ reactions when...