In the case of Hill v Governing Body of Great Tey Primary School it was found that a Claimant`s dismissal was procedurally unfair. The tribunal calculated the remedy on the basis that the Claimant`s employment would have terminated in any event two months later (had a proper procedure been followed). An 80% reduction on account of contributory fault was also applied, leaving the claimant with the...
Question: Would public sector employees who are subject to industry or sector wide negotiated terms continue to be entitled to benefit from increases in pay which are negotiated under those terms after they have transferred to the private sector? Background of the case: The Claimants were originally employed by London Borough of Lewisham. These Claimants had a contractual entitlement to pay i...
No, this is nothing to do with the Pope`s resignation last week. In Heafield v Times Newspaper Ltd, Mr Heafield pursued claims for harassment on the grounds of his religion on the basis that his line manager`s comment "can anyone tell me what`s happening to the f***ing pope", which was shouted in a pressured newsroom, was intended to deride and insult his religion and in the alternative, the com...
In response to recent European Court of Human Rights judgment about religious rights in the workplace, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has this week published good practice guidance for employers on how to comply with the Court`s judgment. This guidance gives various examples of requests that might be made by employees and what it regards to be an appropriate response. Two such exam...
The DWP plans to consult in March 2013 on several changes to the auto-enrolment regime. The changes to be introduced are intended to simplify technical aspects of the legislation, reflecting the lessons learned so far from how the regime has operated in practice. Three specific areas have been singled out by the DWP: To simplifying the process of assessing the workforce. Making it easier fo...
Background The Employment Equality Age Regulations 2006 ("the Age Regulations") provide that a person will be directly discriminated against if they are treated less favourably than a comparator on the grounds of the person`s age and the treatment cannot be objectively justified. The Age Regulations also provide that a person will be indirectly discriminated against if a provision, criterion o...
Another recent case has dealt with the question of whether a redundancy policy can be contractual...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently given its judgment on whether a Council had fairly dismissed a social worker (who was disabled) for failing to register with the General Social Care Council (GSCC): A -v- B (UKEAT/0383/11/DM). On 1 April 2005 it became a legal requirement for all social workers to be registered with the GSCC and a criminal offence for someone to describe themselve...
The recent case of West London Mental Health NHS Trust v Chhabra confirms the need to exercise great care to ensure that disciplinary procedures are not contractually binding on employers. If a court is able to construe a disciplinary procedure as having contractual effect, a breach of the procedure could lead to the employee seeking a court injunction preventing the disciplinary procedure going...
Legal advice privilege entitles a party to withhold evidence from production to a third party or the court where the evidence involves advice between a lawyer and client....
BIS (the Government Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) has recently announced that it proposes to make fundamental changes to the TUPE 2006 Regulations. The key proposals include: Repealing entirely the ‘service change` provisions, (affecting outsourcing, retendering and bringing work back in house`) to align the definition of a transfer with the wording of European law....
Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (in force from 1st October 2011) agency workers who work in the same role for the same hirer for a period of 12 continuous weeks are entitled to the same "basic working and employment conditions" as they would have received if they`d been hired directly by the hirer....
The Government`s proposals for Settlement Agreements are due to come into force this Summer. Under the proposals employers will potentially be able to negotiate settlements with employees pre-termination without fear of this being used in evidence against them in any unfair dismissal claims. The exception to this is where the employer acts with impropriety - known as "improper behaviour"....
Chris Stops, one of Forbury People`s HR Consultants, has written this blog for us: Given the cold snap we are currently experiencing, and the current run of seemingly unreliable and changeable weather I thought extremes of temperature would be a sensible topic to start the year on....
In a 2011 report, Health at work: an independent review of sickness absence, Dame Carol Black and David Frost CBE highlighted how the State spends £13 billion a year on health-related benefits and employers face an annual bill of around £9 billion for sick pay and associated costs. They made a number of recommendations aimed at minimising absence from work due to ill health...
Four Christians (Ms Eweida, Ms Chaplin, Ms Ladele and Mr McFarlane) who were prevented from manifesting their religion in various ways in the workplace unsuccessfully claimed in the UK courts that they had been unlawfully discriminated against on grounds of their religion....
Subject to Parliamentary process, the Government announced yesterday that it intends to introduce a 12 months` pay cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal....
Anna Hawksworth of Carillion Advice Services details the early concilitation consultation...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that where serious allegations are made against an employee, the employer should ensure that it undertakes a sufficient investigation before dismissing (Stuart -v- London City Airport (UKEAT/0273/12))...
The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills confirmed yesterday that it proposes to make fundamental changes to the TUPE Regulations as follows...