The Taylor Review of modern working practices and employment law was based on the premise that all work must be “fair and decent”. Fine words, indeed – but what do they mean in the real world? And what does the Government’s recent response via its Good Work Plan mean for employers?
Europe’s patent system is looking uncertain. Plans for a Unified Patent Court (UPC) have been thrown into doubt after the German Constitutional Court agreed to hear a case about the legitimacy of the proposed court – and part of the complaint against it appears to relate to Brexit.
The intention behind the UPC is for it to act as a patent court for all European Union member states. As such, it will have exclusive competence over European patents and European patents with unitary effect, and will form part of the judicial system of contracting member states. It will not have competence in respect of national patents.
If you are planning to live or work abroad it is likely that you may need the services of a notary public to complete the necessary paperwork and other formalities.
Jonathan Durkin, notary public and solicitor at Prosperity Law Liverpool and Manchester, explains what documents you may need before being allowed to live or work abroad and how a notary public can help ensure your documents are in order or to authenticate them.
As the recent furore over pay levels at the BBC demonstrates, the gender pay gap is never far from the headlines. The resulting media coverage ought to have been sufficient to make any organisation pause for thought – even those considerably smaller and less well known than the BBC. And, although the gender pay gap is reportedly at its lowest level for twenty years, no organisation is immune to charges of institutional sexism as regards pay levels for male and female employees.
The courts have delivered the latest ruling on the long-running issue of whether or not companies are able to trademark colours associated with their brands. In Red Bull GmbH v European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the European General Court (Second Chamber) (the Court) upheld the EUIPO’s decision to cancel two of Red Bull’s European “colour combination” trade marks for “lack of precision”.
There are a variety of reasons for experiencing problems with pay, whether you are an employee or contractor. The first thing we advise, is talk to your employer and find out why.
If you are struggling to get in contact with your employer, or can’t seem to agree on the amount you are owed– then you are well within your rights to challenge them.
If you choose to challenge them, you should act quickly. It is much harder to recuperate lost wages after 3 months from the date the problem arose.
The gig economy is a hot topic. Love it or loathe it, it is a way of working that seems set to stay. Characterised by payment per “gig”, it is seen by some as the ideal way of working flexibly but by others as an exploitative exercise that provides little or nothing in the way of workplace protections.
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