Dozens of eCourier drivers are pursuing legal action against the Royal Mail-owned service, claiming they are misclassified as self-employed. The 46 drivers argue that their work conditions indicate they should be classified as workers, which would grant them rights such as minimum wage and holiday pay. Mandy Bhattal, an employment partner at law firm Leigh…

BAE Systems workers have announced a further three-week strike in a dispute over pay. More than 1,000 union members at the aerospace company’s sites in Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire and over 200 design team members will strike until at least 20 February. The Unite Union said it was because BAE’s “negotiations over pay and…

A new report from Payscale suggests that employers are increasingly considering “peanut butter raises” – an approach which involves uniform pay increases spread evenly across the firm rather than performance-based pay hikes. The report indicates that over 40% of organisations are adopting this method, rising to 56% among firms which expect to exceed their revenue…

Judges have ruled that severe hair loss in women constitutes a disability that impacts daily activities. The landmark decision arose from a £277,000 VAT dispute involving Mark Glenn Ltd, which sells wigs for women with hair loss. The Upper Tribunal judges, Swami Raghavan and Kevin Poole, said: “Severe hair loss in women constitutes an impairment…

Metro Bank has launched the third round of redundancies in as many years, putting about 100 jobs at risk. “We regularly review our operations as we invest in growth areas, deliver our strategy and enhance our proposition for customers,” Metro Bank said in a statement.

A survey by online jobs portal Adzuna has found that UK vacancies fell from 745,448 in November to 716,791 last month, a 15% reduction compared with a year earlier, and the weakest full year since 2020. “Competition for roles intensified and hiring slowed across many of the UK’s largest sectors as the usual year-end uplift…