Karen Collins

Announced changes to the Working Time Regulations – what do they mean for employers and workers?

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR), workers are only allowed to carry over up to 1.6 weeks of leave to the next holiday year, at the employer’s discretion. The remaining four weeks to which every worker is entitled cannot be carried over and are ‘lost’ if untaken, except where the worker has been unable …
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Breadwinners – supporting refugees one loaf of bread at a time

In our regular client focus, we take a look at the work of a winner of the Stephen Lloyd Awards, Breadwinners. Breadwinners is a grassroots charity and social enterprise supporting refugees into work, training and mentoring opportunities through selling artisan organic bread across London’s best markets. We invest funding to set up market stalls that …
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Charity Trustee Duties: A Coronavirus Guide

During the coronavirus crisis, many charity trustees will want to be sure they are complying with their duties. This quick guide aims to help them do so, however it is not a comprehensive guide to trustee duties. Trustee duties in generalAlthough there are some differences in trustee duties and responsibilities depending on the legal structure …
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Serious Incident Reporting by charities: Mindy Jhittay speaks to Thomson Reuters Practical Law

In the first of two new video interviews, Mindy Jhittay speaks to Thomson Reuters Practical Law about the requirement for charities to report serious incidents. Charities are facing significant challenges in response to COVID-19 and the associated government restrictions. In the meantime, the Commission still requires charities to report serious incidents. These may of course …
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Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – latest

The government has published the details of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, under which staff can be furloughed with their consent. Please see our latest update on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme here. The full government briefing on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and how organisations can claim, can be found here. It will be …
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Establishing right to work practices and compliance with sponsor duties

A well known research organisation with a sponsor licence has a large number of people at its premises undertaking a range of activities, including work, study, research and visit. As a result, the status of their people is varied and can include employed, self-employed, students, seconded workers, visitors and researchers. Due to their complex arrangements, …
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Transfer of Tier 2 sponsored workers by TUPE

A media company with a Tier 2 sponsor licence underwent a company restructure which resulted in a change in direct ownership of the business. The new owner was then required to apply for a sponsor licence in order to continue employing any Tier 2 sponsored workers. How did we help? There were various moving parts …
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Right to work and getting the job

A business wanted to hire an individual who was currently sponsored by another organisation.  The individual’s contract included non-compete clauses and the organisation did not have a licence to sponsor migrant workers. How did we help? We provided holistic advice on the immigration and employment factors affecting the individual’s right to work for the business …
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Sponsorship errors: an issue solved

We were contacted by an arts organisation with a “quick” question about whether one of their employees could do work for another organisation.  In the process, we discovered that there were a host of problems with the way that the individual had been sponsored and the organisation had made a number of sponsorship errors. How …
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Coronavirus and your charity: Bates Wells address charities’ key questions in new webinar

With the entire charity sector raising a range of legal questions in relation to the impact of coronavirus in recent weeks, Bates Wells, in association with NCVO, have produced a webinar which addresses charities’ most common queries. The webinar, which you can view here after registering your details, covered the following topics: HR and employment …
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Bates Wells covers employment law implications of coronavirus in new webinars

With the disruption caused by the coronavirus continuing into April, this week Paul Seath, partner in our employment team, delivered two webinars focusing on how the ongoing turbulence has impacted on employment law. In the first online session Paul covered everything from the rules governing sick pay that employers need to be aware of, through …
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The Modern Slavery Act

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 has recently been the focus of an independent government review. Oliver Scutt and Yvett Talas interviewed Andrew Wallis OBE (Chief Executive of leading anti-slavery charity Unseen) and Dr Anjali Mazumder (AI and Justice and Human Rights Theme Lead at The Alan Turing Institute), to find out what impact the Modern …
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