On 16 January 2015, Acas published a draft revised Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures providing new guidance relating to a worker's right to be accompanied. It confirms that an employer must agree to a worker's request to be accompanied by any chosen companion from one of the statutory categories, namely a fellow worker, trade union representative or official....
The High Court has given judgment in a case, which although it is not an employment case, considered the issue of whether a settlement agreement had settled future claims. Although the settlement agreement was, it appeared, drafted narrowly and only made reference to the specific claim number in the previous court proceedings, the court considered very carefully the statements of case of the original claims. ...
HMRC has announced that it will be withdrawing the "check off" facility, allowing union subscriptions to be collected through payroll, by the end of April 2015....
The High Court has granted an interim injunction against a union preventing it from taking industrial action in relation to an industrial action ballot that had been carried out 11 months previously. The court held that the industrial action could not be said to be continuing, and therefore at some point shortly after the previous strike the authority of the ballot to sanction industrial action came to an end....
The European Court of Justice has today given judgment in the obesity and disability case involving a Danish childminder, Mr Kaltoft, that we first reported back in July of this year. The approach taken by the Advocate General, that the effects of obesity can constitute a disability, although obesity is not in itself a disability, has been confirmed, as expected. It is to be imagined that the timing of the case, as we head into the Christmas feasting period, will attract some media attention, given the present topicality of both obesity and European law....
The High Court this week handed down its judgment in Unison's second application for judicial review to challenge the employment tribunal fees system. The challenge was, again, unsuccessful....
At the start of last year we reported that the Court of Appeal had referred the Woolworths and Ethel Austin cases to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) . These cases were considered by the ECJ on 20 November last year....
BIS has just announced the Government will make changes to regulations under the Employment Rights Act 1996 that will mean that claims to Employment Tribunals cannot stretch back further than 2 years. ...
The need for an employer to carry out a right to work check for all prospective employees is mandatory. But here at Forbury People / Employmentbuddy we have noticed that what can often be overlooked is the situation regarding TUPE transfers. When you acquire employees you must carry out these checks within 60 days of the transfer rather than 28, which used to be the case....
Employmentbuddy's latest article gives you a helpful timeline of this year's important dates that could affect your business...
Although not an employment case, the case brought against the bus company, FirstGroup, and reported this week has raised some interesting issues on what is a reasonable adjustment. The question was whether it was a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010 to require a bus company to have a policy requiring non-wheelchair using passengers to move if occupying a space required by a wheelchair user?...
In another case relating to holiday leave, The Sash Window Workshop Ltd and another v King UKEAT/0057/14, comments by the EAT suggest that workers will be entitled to carry holiday over to the next leave year where they are unable to take their holiday for reasons beyond their control, as an exception to the usual rule that holiday entitlement expires at the end of a leave year. This is already the case if the reason for not taking the leave is the worker's sickness (following NHS Leeds v Larner [2012] IRLR 825), but now the scope of the exception seems to be wider....
UNITE, which represents the claimants in the Hertel (UK) Ltd v Woods and others UKEAT/0160/14 and AMEC Group Ltd v Law and others UKEAT/0161/14 cases, has announced that it will not be appealing the EAT's decision. The indications are that the employers in these cases will not be appealing either. This means that the legal position in relation to overtime and holiday pay, in light of these cases...
It is quite possible that many of your employees will receive new smartphones, tablets and laptops as Christmas gifts. It seems timely, therefore, to take a moment to consider what issues might arise from allowing employees to use such gadgets in the workplace....
This is now available to download here. As the regulations are notoriously complicated (and only just made final this week), plus this is all very new territory for employers to get their heads around, we may revise the policy before 5 April 2015. Keep an eye out, we will update you....
The Shared Parental Leave Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/3050) and the Statutory Shared Parental Pay (General) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/3051) have been made final this week. They both come into force on Monday 1 December 2014 in respect of children whose expected week of childbirth or placement for adoption is after 5 April 2015 There appear to be no significant changes from the draft regulations....
When it becomes apparent during maternity leave that the employee`s role is redundant, at what point does the obligation offer suitable alternative employment arise under regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999? Could it be when the restructuring is complete, which could be when the employee is returning from maternity leave or even after her return, which could then re...
With effect from 1 December 2014, section 56 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) will come into force, making it a criminal offence to request an enforced subject access request. Enforced subject access occurs where one person is compelled, for example by an employer or prospective employer, to make a subject access request under the DPA and then provide the response. Employers cannot apply f...
We are perhaps all guilty of doing some quick research online to make our presentations look more credible However, when can an employment tribunal do some research before making a decision? The answer is no, not if the parties do not agree to it. The EAT has ruled that a tribunal committed a procedural error in searching on the internet for evidence that supported a claimant`s case that she was...
An employment tribunal has confirmed that time spent by trade union representatives attending union meetings was not "working time" within the meaning of the Working Time Regulations 1998. A health and safety representative and a shop steward brought claims against their employer after it refused to take into account time spent on their union activities when calculating the 11 hour rest period th...