New powers to tackle waste crime have come into force as the Environment Agency has been given the authority to lock up illegal waste sites and block access in order to prevent tonnes of waste piling up and posing a risk to the environment. The Environment Agency has also been granted the power to require rogue operators to clear all the waste at a problem waste site, not just the illegal waste. The changes are in response to a public consultation where 90% of respondents supported proposals for the regulator to take physical steps to curb ill... Continue reading

The TUC has called on the government to give UK supply-chain workers the right to challenge their parent employer over minimum wage and holiday pay abuses. A new TUC report estimates that five million UK workers cannot enforce their basic rights with their ‘parent company’: 3.3 million are employed through outsourced companies. 615,000 are employed by franchise businesses. At least one million are employed by recruitment agencies, umbrella companies and personal service companies. The TUC says that unless joint liability is extende... Continue reading

Over two million people received a pay rise from 1 April 2018, due to an above-inflation rise in national living and minimum wage rates. The National Living Wage has gone up by 4.4%, from £7.50 to £7.83, meaning a full-time minimum wage worker will be over £2,000 better off since the introduction of the National Living Wage in April 2016. From 1 April the tax-free personal allowance will also increase from £11,500 to £11,850. Almost 400,000 young workers are expected to benefit from the fastest increases in the National Minimum Wage in m... Continue reading

ACAS has published a new guide for agency workers and employers after its helpline revealed that many are unaware of the legal rights of either party. Data from a recent ONS Labour Force Survey suggested that the total number of agency workers in the UK currently stands at around 865,000 and this figure is expected to rise to one million by 2020. As the use of agency workers becomes ever more popular it is important that agency workers and employers using agency staff understand their rights and responsibilities to promote a good and producti... Continue reading

New legislation that will reverse the impact of a ‘staircase tax’, which has unfairly affected up to a thousand businesses, has been introduced by Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid. A Supreme Court judgment saw hundreds of businesses that operate in adjoining units or rooms, but are accessed from a common corridor or staircase, receiving separate rate bills for each unit. The ruling also saw businesses facing higher rate bills, with some paying more due to the loss of small business rate relief. The introduction of the new Bill means th... Continue reading