Under section 103A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), an employee is to be regarded as (automatically) unfairly dismissed ‘if the reason (or, if more than one, the principal reason) for the dismissal is that the employee made a protected disclosure’. In order to succeed in a claim for unfair dismissal in reliance on ERA 1996, s 103A, two questions must therefore be addressed: • whether the making of the disclosure

Under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), an employer cannot make any deductions from the wages of a worker unless: • the deduction is required or authorised to be made by virtue of: ◦ a statutory provision, eg the requirement to make deductions for income tax or National Insurance contributions via Pay As You Earn (PAYE), or ◦ a relevant provision of the worker's contract, eg where the employer provides a loan to the worker and has a contractual right to take money out of the worker’s wages in repayment, or • the worker has previously signified in writing his agreement or consent to the deduction (eg in respect of pension contributions) Separately,

Whistleblowing detriment A worker (W) has a right not to be subjected to any detriment by any act, or any deliberate failure to act, done by another worker of W’s employer in the course of that other worker’s employment on the ground that W has made a protected disclosure. Where this happens, the act or failure to act in question is treated as also done by the employer. This is so whether or not the act or omission occurred with the employer's knowledge or approval, though in the case of detriment by a fellow worker the employer is given a statutory defence if it can show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent that other worker from doing the thing in question or from doing anything of that description. The fellow worker or agent may be liable for the detriment as well as the employer, but the fellow worker will not to be liable if:

In order to be granted a save as you earn (SAYE) option, the option holder must enter into an HMRC-certified savings arrangement. At the outset, the employee must select how much they intend to contribute from their monthly salary under the savings arrangement during the applicable savings period. Each monthly contribution cannot be more than the maximum individual limit which applies under the SAYE legislation (which is currently £500 per month) and the scheme cannot require a minimum contribution of more than £10 per month. From the 1 September 2018, the terms of the SAYE prospectus allow an employee to delay the payment of monthly contributions, by up to 12 occasions in total, without causing the savings contract to be cancelled prematurely but if the participant fails to make a contribution on the due date for a thirteenth occasion the employee is

A whistleblowing claim may be made by an employee if they are dismissed or suffer a detriment because they have made a protected disclosure. Protected disclosures are governed by Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) and include where a criminal offence has been committed. ERA 1996, s 43J provides that any provision in an agreement between a worker and their employer, whether a contract or not, is void insofar as it purports to preclude the worker from making a protected disclosure. Therefore, there can be no prohibition on the making of a disclosure. However, the section is silent as to the use of confidential documents in a whistleblowing claim. The terms of a

In summary, a valid salary sacrifice arrangement (also sometimes known as an optional remuneration arrangement) involves: • a legally-effective variation to an employee’s employment contract under which, on the true construction of the revised contract: ◦ the employee is entitled to less cash remuneration ◦ in exchange for a non-cash benefit, and ◦ the exchange was legally effective prior to the employee being entitled to payment • a clear understanding between the parties as to the terms of the arrangements, in particular the employee, must fully understand the implications of what they are entering into, and • the employee not being entitled to reinstate the original (higher) cash remuneration (ie the

There is an enterprise management incentives (EMI) commitment of working time requirement which must be satisfied by any employee in order to qualify to be granted an EMI share option. An employee is eligible for EMI purposes only if their average amount per week of ‘committed time’ equals or exceeds: • 25 hours a week (regardless of any other economic activity they also undertake), or • if less, 75% of their working time Once an EMI option has been granted, this committed working time requirement continues to apply, and in addition to this the employee must actually spend a statutory minimum amount of time on the business of the company

There is an enterprise management incentives (EMI) commitment of working time requirement which must be satisfied by any employee in order to qualify to be granted an EMI share option. An employee is eligible for EMI purposes only if their average amount per week of ‘committed time’ equals or exceeds: • 25 hours a week (regardless of any other economic activity they also undertake), or • if less, 75% of their working time For further details on the EMI working time requirement, see Practice Note: EMI—what makes an employee eligible?—Working time requirement. If employees are furloughed,

Whether or not an individual is protected against dismissal or detriment for refusing to cross a picket line during a strike will depend on the specific circumstances. Consideration will need to be given to: • whether they are on strike for statutory purposes • their employment status • in the case of dismissal: ◦ whether the strike is ‘protected’ ◦ when the dismissal took place ◦ in the case of any action short of dismissal, whether it was punishment or retaliation by the employer for the worker or employee being on strike Is the individual participating in industrial action? Participation in a strike is a form of industrial action, and

A salary sacrifice scheme involves a change in the contractual arrangements between an employer and employee so that the employee agrees to a reduction in the amount of cash pay they receive in return for an alternative non-cash benefit in kind. By making a salary sacrifice

An individual is only eligible for enterprise management incentives (EMI) options if they are an employee of the company whose shares are the subject of the options (or, in the case of a group, an employee of any qualifying subsidiary of that company). Therefore, in this case, the person will need to satisfy this requirement in relation to both of the relevant companies. In addition, there are strict working time requirements which must be satisfied in order to be granted EMI options by each such company. In summary, the average per week committed time the option holder must spend working for the EMI company or a member of its group (the parent and its 51% subsidiaries) is 25 hours

For information on wages generally, see Practice Note: Pay and wages. Statutory demands can be served on both corporate and individual debtors: • in the case of a corporate debtor, service of a statutory demand is not a prerequisite to a creditor presenting a winding-up petition • in the case of an individual debtor, a creditor's bankruptcy petition can only be founded on the ground of either an unsatisfied statutory demand, or an unsatisfied execution of a judgment