Insights & News
Search for Insights & News
-
Positive action in the workplace
Inbrief
21 April 2022Positive action involves taking steps to favour or encourage people from protected groups to make up for historic barriers or lack of opportunity. This Inbrief looks at the scope for taking lawful positive action in the workplace under British employment law.
-
Gender pay gap reporting in Ireland: the current state of play
21 April 2022The long-awaited regulations setting out the detail for Irish employers’ gender pay gap reporting obligations are expected imminently. In this article we cover what we know and what we don’t yet know about the reporting obligations, how employers can prepare for gender pay gap reporting and compare UK and Irish legislation on gender pay gap reporting.
-
Laura Ensor and Síobhra Rush explain how Ireland’s proposed auto-enrolment pension scheme is likely to work
21 April 2022In a recent article for Think Business, Síobhra Rush and Laura Ensor explain how the proposed auto-enrolment pension scheme is likely to work following the Irish government’s announcement on the principles of the proposed Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (the “auto-enrolment system”) for Ireland.
-
Fair Remuneration for Authors and Performers in the Digital Content Directive: are you aware of your new obligations?
21 April 2022You probably heard about the controversial Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive [1] when it was first published back in 2019 (and supposed to be transposed into national law by 7 June 2021).
-
Shipwrecking online pirates: we can’t wait for a change in the wind, we need to adjust their sails to force a change of course
20 April 2022As life begins to return to some sort of normality after the huge disruption caused by COVID, we have been reflecting on how the swift imposition of lockdowns and other restrictions escalated what was likely to be a greater shift to the consumption of digital entertainment content via the internet and streaming services; both the legitimate and illegal kinds.
-
Employer Takeaways from the Annual Report of the Irish Data Protection Commission
14 April 2022The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) recently published its annual report for 2021 detailing the activities it undertook in 2021 and setting out its regulatory strategy and priorities for the next five years.
-
Establishing a business presence in the UK
Inbrief
13 April 2022If you are a non-UK corporate body and you wish to establish a business presence in the UK, this brief guide covers the main issues you need to consider.
-
Ads and Brand Law Digest April 2022
13 April 2022Welcome to the April 2022 edition of our Digest, covering legal and regulatory developments from the last few weeks relevant to advertising, marketing and brand-owning businesses. As usual, for each item we provide a succinct summary accompanied by a link to the full text of the relevant official source or our own report.
-
Treading the payment tightrope: can you still rely on the ‘limited network exclusion’ or might you now need a licence to carry out regulated payment services?
13 April 2022The European Banking Authority (EBA) has recently published final guidelines on the application of the limited network exclusion (LNE) under the revised Payment Services Directive ((EU) 2015/2366) (PSD2). The guidelines apply to national competent authorities (NCA), which post-Brexit does not include the UK FCA. The UK FCA published its updated guidance on the application of the LNE under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs) in November 2021, through PS21/19, PERG 15 of its Perimeter Guidance manual, and the latest version of its Payment Services and Electronic Money - Our Approach document.
-
Sports Q&A: Conducting misconduct investigations
12 April 2022In an increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscape, dealing with the intricacies of investigations can be fraught with difficulties, especially in a sports context. Often conducted under intense scrutiny, from the media and stakeholders, allegations need to be carefully and appropriately investigated to maintain your reputation and mitigate legal risk. In this Q&A we consider some of the key questions when conducting a investigation into your staff, coaches, officials or members.
-
High Court in Hong Kong gives permission for witnesses to give video evidence
11 April 2022The High Court in Hong Kong has granted an application allowing witnesses based abroad to give evidence by video conferencing, even though the flight ban has been lifted.
-
EU to give workers the right to request flexible working: Linda Hynes comments for RTÉ
Press
11 April 2022The right to request flexible work arrangements is set to become a reality this year for Irish employees, with the Government due to implement the EU's Work Life Balance Directive.
-
Lewis Silkin has advised the shareholders of PR agency Cirkle on its acquisition by Huntsworth
Deal
08 April 2022Lewis Silkin has advised its long standing client, Cirkle and the shareholders of Cirkle, an Employee Ownership Trust and Founder Caroline Kinsey on its acquisition by Huntsworth, the international healthcare and communications group. Cirkle, which serves clients such as AkzoNobel, Pepsico, Dreams, Dyson and GSK with consumer, corporate and B2Bcommunications was recently awarded PRCA’s Medium Consultancy of the Year.
-
Lewis Silkin has advised Next Fifteen Communications Group Plc’s Brandwidth Marketing on the acquisition of Cubaka Limited
08 April 2022Lewis Silkin has advised its longstanding client, Next Fifteen Communications Group plc, the digital communications and growth consultancy group, on the acquisition of Cubaka Limited, an award-winning social media agency.
-
Parental bereavement leave
Inbrief
07 April 2022As of 6 April 2020, working parents who lose a child under the age of 18 or have a baby stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy have the right to take two weeks’ paid bereavement leave. This Inbrief summarises the rights introduced for both leave and pay, the notice requirements and the practical implications for employers.
-
Court of Appeal lifts restriction on employers responding to industrial action
07 April 2022The Court of Appeal has ruled that UK legislation does not prevent employers from taking steps falling short of dismissal in response to industrial action. The UK may be in breach of its international commitments over trade union rights, but it is for Parliament and not the courts to address this sensitive issue.
-
Gender pay gap reporting 2021: our analysis of the latest results
07 April 2022Employers had until 4 April 2022 to publish their gender pay gap statistics relating to 5 April 2021. Now that the results are in, we’ve taken a look at what they reveal.
-
A historic and pivotal moment for the future of cryptoassets, payments and money in the UK?
07 April 2022What happened? And so 4 April 2022 may come to be seen as a pivotal turning point for the future of cryptoassets in the UK.
-
10 things we’ve learned from the new Covid guidance
07 April 20221 April marked another milestone in the loosening of Covid restrictions. Universal free testing has now ended, and the new guidance sees Covid being treated in (almost) the same way as other respiratory illness.
-
How to mitigate the risk of employment claims about working during Covid-19 – a table
07 April 2022Our table for employers sets out the practical steps to take in order to reduce the scope for claims from employees arising out of working during the Covid-19 pandemic.