It is quite clear that we are in for a period of economic turbulence and 4th August 2016 saw the Bank of England cut its key lending rate to a record low of 0.25%. The Bank warned that there will be “little growth in GDP in the second half of the year”. In response, the Chancellor said “Alongside the actions that the Bank is taking, I am prepared to take any necessary steps to support the economy and promote confidence.”On the employment law front our Head of Employment Tony Bertin addressed major businesses in Kent in May 2016 at the Manak Breakfast Forums and said he expected few changes whatever the result.The majority of our employment law is actually home grown and the right not to be unfairly dismissed dates back to 1971 before the UK even joined the then Common Market. It is in fact our law on discrimination that has been widely adopted by the EU.In fact, since the referendum result Secretary of State for leaving the EU, David Davis has insisted there will be no major changes in employment rights. In a blog on the “Conservative Home” website he is quoted as saying “To be clear, I am not talking here about employment regulation. All the empirical studies show that it is not employment regulation that stultifies economic growth, but all the other market-related regulations, many of them wholly unnecessary.“Britain has a relatively flexible workforce, and so long as the employment law environment stays reasonably stable it should not be a problem for business.”In due course we at Manaks anticipate changes in the Immigration framework, but until negotiations begin with our European partners it is difficult to say what these might be.  However, we do not expect any serious issues for EU citizens already living and working here.Our Head of Immigration Kemesha Lynch will be writing on this topic when we know more.

Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes sets out the commitments that the government has made to support the ‘Windrush’ generation.Click here for the full detailsContact Manak Solicitors for any Immigration queries you may have.

A short video of our brilliant Virtual Reality experience at the Orpington 1st Christmas lights event in November 2017!

Manak Solicitors had an ‘out of this world’ presence at the Orpington Christmas Lights event this year- literally! We decided to do something special for the town and provided residents with the opportunity to experience the best virtual reality (VR) available today. A team of experts set up two HTC Vive headsets for people to use free of charge throughout the night. The demand was constant, if not overwhelming, and seeing the faces of those taking off their headset after having a snowball fight in a utopian winter street was brilliant.There were two experiences available during the evening. We had our featured game, Merry Snowballs, which was chosen for it’s Christmas theme and fun gameplay. Then we had Audioshield, chosen to really show off what VR is capable of. They both went down very well with the public.Our attraction caught the attention of people of all ages which was great to see. Younger ones were particularly keen, but parents were often just as eager to have a go. We have some great images and footage of the event and will be posting a video montage in the coming days on our brand new YouTube channel, so look out for that.We also ran a competition to win an M&S Christmas hamper. We had almost 100 entries which was fantastic. The winner of this will be announced very shortly- good luck to all!Overall, the night was a big success and we would like to extend our thanks to Orpington 1st for improving this showcase event year after year. We are already looking forward to 2018 and thinking up ways of enhancing our offering!

The weather is getting colder, the days are getting shorter and – dare we say it – Christmas is around the corner. At Manak Solicitors we understand that not all children are fortunate enough to be receiving presents at this festive time of year. That is why we are proud to support the Samaritan’s Purse (International Relief UK) “Operation Christmas Child” initiative.Samaritan’s Purse provides shoebox gifts to children suffering the consequences of war, famine and poverty. The purpose of the initiative is to enable children across the world to open a gift on Christmas day. “Operation Christmas Child” works to ensure that children receive a little ray of positivity at this cold time of year. And the figures speak for themselves – over 146,000,000 children have received shoebox gifts over the past 27 years that this initiative has been running.The Manak Solicitors teams based in Gravesend and Orpington prepared beautifully wrapped gifts for children of all ages. The turnout for this initiative was outstanding, with all members of staff based at the two offices contributing towards the initiative. Gifts included toys, educational supplies and daily essentials and a donation was also made to the Samaritan’s Purse charity, to meet the cost of transporting the gifts to the children in time for Christmas.Speaking about the initiative, Aneeta Kang, Family Solicitor and Director at Manak Solicitors said “It was such a pleasure to see everyone at the office pitch in for such a good cause. The entire team at Manak Solicitors pulled together to make a concerted effort to ensure that disadvantaged children would receive a little something to make them smile at this festive time of year. Well done Team Manaks!”If you would like to donate to the Samaritan’s Purse “Operation Christmas Child” initiative, or if you’d like to read more, please click here.

We’re delighted to reveal Surinder Singh Manak, our Managing Director, is profiled in the Winter edition of the Orpington 1st Magazine.Read his interview in full on page 13 here!

February ReportThe gig economy has been high on the agenda for some months now culminating in today’s decision in the Court of Appeal in the case of Pimlico Plumbers and Charlie Mullins v Gary Smith.The Manak Employment Relations Breakfast Forum today at Côte Brasserie Bluewater happened to be looking at the gig economy and the ramifications for employers.  At Breakfast Time this morning the Pimlico decision had not been handed down but it was a keen conversation point for our employers at the forum led by Tony Bertin.The phrase gig economy has been taken as referring to freelancers taking assignments using technology platforms like Über.   In fact, Uber BV (based in Holland) had been the Respondent in a tribunal case in the Autumn whether it was held the drivers were “workers” and, as such, were entitled to be paid at the Minimum Wage and receive Holiday pay.  Uber argued that they just offered a technology platform to their 40,000 drivers.  Uber’s position was that it acts as an agent for the drivers through the use of the Uber smartphone app, and that the contract for the provision of the taxi service was between the individual Uber driver and passenger.  As a consequence, Uber treated its drivers as being genuinely self-employed, and therefore not entitled to the employment rights applicable to workers.The tribunal had little truck with that and analysed the key factors and found ÜberInterviews and recruits drivers, and subjects them to an induction process.Controls the passengers’ key information and does not share this with the driver.Requires drivers to accept fares, and it issues warnings and ultimately locks drivers out of the app if too many fares are refused.And found that the drivers were workersThey have the app switched on.They are in the territory in which they are authorised to work.They are willing and able to accept fares.And as such were entitled to be paid at the minimum wage rate and be paid for holidays.The decision has potential implications for all businesses which seek to offer customers the type of job-by-job services provided by Uber through the engagement of independent contractors. It is clear that arrangements between the business, the individual and the customer will be closely scrutinised, and contracts will be disregarded if these do not reflect the reality of the arrangements. In fact, the more the company tries to regulate the activities the more likely it is that the operatives are Workers.What is worker?Section 230(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 defines workers to include individuals who undertake to perform personally any work or services for another party to the contract. There is an exclusion for circumstances where the other party to the contract can be considered a client or customer of any profession or business carried out by the individual. An individual who does not fall within this definition will usually be regarded as genuinely self-employed.Practically speaking the only difference between a worker and an employee is that the Worker cannot claim unfair dismissal.   Common distinctions are:Is the individual integrated into the business?Is there was anything to indicate that he played any part in that company.Did he come and go as he chose and determine how and when he worked subject to any practical exigencies such as emergencies and deadlines?Was he involved in company procedures such as appraisals?Was he paid when he did not work.Did he have specialist skills which gave him a stronger bargaining position in the market place,Is a courier a worker?Another tribunal case with QCs on both sides.  She was claiming 2 days’ unpaid holiday and that she was a worker. The Citysprint contract was headed Confirmation of tender to supply courier services to CitySprint (UK) ltd.  Remember this is one woman and her push bike.   Decision not surprisingly, was that the courier was a worker.Pimlico PlumbersAll of this now is reinforced by the Court of Appeal case Pimlico Plumbers and Charlie Mullins v Gary Smith which is binding on the lower courts and tribunals.  What were the key characteristics.? Bear in mind that this is not some put upon cycle courier.  The Claimant was on any basis well paid; by all accounts £80,000 per year.  It was the application of the law to the facts and a working pattern that would be familiar in construction, professional services and insurance.  At the heart of the case was the assessment of whether it was a contract for personal services and the Appeal Court held it was and that fairly and squarely made it Worker status. To quote from the facts outlinedYou shall provide such building trade services are within your skills”; in sub-paragraph 2.2 that “You shall provide the Services for such periods as may be agreed with the Company … The actual days on which you will provide the Services will be agreed between you and the Company …”; in sub-paragraph 2.4 that “you will be competent to perform the work which you agree to carry out”, and “you will promptly correct … any errors in your work …”; in sub-paragraph 2.5 that “If you are unable to work due to illness or injury … you will notify the Company”; and in sub-paragraph 3.9 that “You will have personal liability for the consequences of your services to the Company”Conclusions Common sense dictates that if an individual depends on your business for all or most of their income then, that person will be a worker. In the name of workplace standards, you may well impose methods of working and provide equipment and tools.  you will probably and rightly have health & safety protocols which you apply. unless the individual is a professional or tradesperson conducting business on their own account and for a number of clients then assume that person will be a worker.Please get in touch with our qualified team of employment solicitors should you seek for professional advice.

Manak Solicitors are delighted to announce we have a brand new website. We believe this is a big step forward in terms of making all of our content and services as simple to navigate as possible for both current and future clients.You will notice further changes and enhancements to the new site over the coming months as we strive to continually improve our digital offering.We warmly welcome any feedback you may have, and hope you enjoy using our new site.

Post-referendum politics has become somewhat argumentative. Whilst the Conservatives may have put the cap back on the bottle in terms of their own political differences, the Labour Party appears to be bent on self-destruction.  Winston Churchill said of Clement Atlee, the first post-war Labour Prime Minister, “A modest man, who has much to be modest about”. Not that this could be levelled at either of the Labour leadership contenders!Law is ultimately Applied Politics. We, lawyers, have to navigate the political storms and look for landfall on distant horizons.  We look at the manifestos of politicians and try and discern in the small print what it might mean for our clients. The Leadership manifestos of Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith have the benefit of being very clear and unambiguous. We are summarising some main points below.CorbynSmithCompanies with more than 250 employees should be required to recognise a specific union for collective bargaining over pay. Reintroduction of sector-wide Wages Councils Worker representation on boards*  Repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016 Repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016Outlaw Zero Hours Contractsand the right to bring unfair dismissal claims from DAY 1 of employment Outlaw Zero Hours Contractsand the right to bring unfair dismissal claims from DAY 1 of employmentAbolition of Tribunal fees Abolition of Tribunal feesNational Living Wage to be increased to£10 per hourCompanies to pay compensation for cancelled shifts   Full campaign pledges as follows:-Owen Smith: Workplace Manifesto.Jeremy Corbyn: Policies.Manak Solicitors 5th August 2016This pledge on worker representation has also been made by Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May