New regulations governing shared parental leave came into force last week. The regulations are intended to enable parents greater flexibility in how they share the care of their child for the first year after birth.
Although tribunal judges can strike out claims without hearing any evidence, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held in Romanowska v Aspirations Care Ltd that where there is a dispute about the facts, it is unlikely that justice can be done without hearing the evidence that could resolve any conflicts of fact.
It is often difficult for tribunals to decide if someone is an employee or a worker, not least because there is no single test. In Halawi v WDFG UK Ltd t/a World Duty Free and anor, the Court of Appeal held that Ms Halawi was neither, because she did not work under a contract which required her, personally, to do the work and her employer had no control over how she worked.