UNISON`s attempt to challenge to the introduction of fees in the employment tribunals and EAT by way of judicial review in the High Court has failed. The High Court found that the fundamental difficulty with the case was that it had been brought prematurely and that, as a result, the robust evidence needed to persuade it to overturn the fees regime had been absent. However, the Court made it clea...
In view of some recent cases involving UK employers and interpretation of the EC Working Time Directive, particularly in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), employers may be significantly underpaying holiday pay. The Directive regulates not just working hours and holiday entitlement. It also regulates, according to the ECJ, the calculation of holiday pay, even though the Directive does not spell that out....
Thank you to everyone who completed the last Buddy Quiz, posted throughout January. We have posted the answers to the questions below so you can check how you did! Question One According to the important decision of the Advocate General in the recent case of ZJR Lock v British Gas, what should the calculation of holiday pay include? A1. All commission payments. A2. Payments which are intrinsi...
Employers, particularly HR practitioners, need to be very careful before getting into discussions with employees over possible termination of employment. The risk is that the employee will rely on those discussions in a tribunal claim later on if agreement is not reached. In an interesting case concerning settlement agreements, the EAT (overturning an Employment Tribunal`s decision) has held tha...
An independent trade union seeking to be recognised by an employer may apply for statutory recognition from the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC). However, a trade union is prevented from seeking recognition where there is already a recognition agreement in place which entitles another trade union to ‘collectively bargain` on behalf of any workers in the bargaining unit. With this in mind...
We recently reported that as of 6 April 2014 new rules governing the right to request flexible working under the Children and Families Bill would be introduced. Currently only employees with at least 26 weeks` continuous employment who have children under the age of 17 (18 if the child is disabled) or who are carers have the right to request flexible working. Furthermore, specific statutory p...
At the hearing this week, the Court of Appeal has referred the Woolworth`s and Ethel Austin cases to the European Court of Justice. Confirmation is now awaited as to exactly what questions to be considered by the ECJ. John Hannett - Usdaw General Secretary said: ‘We are pleased that this case is going to be heard at the highest level and that we will get a definitive decision. Exactly how defin...
The government has published the draft National Minimum Wage (Variation of Financial Penalty) Regulations 2014 under which employers who fail to pay workers the national minimum wage (NMW) will face tougher penalties from next month. The maximum fine for anyone failing to pay the statutory level will increase from £5,000 to £20,000. The NMW for the period 1 October 2013 to 30 September 2014 for...
Holiday pay Neal v Freightliner Ltd (EAT) An employment tribunal has held that a worker`s overtime should be included in the calculation of holiday pay. This decision has been appealed to the EAT but at present the case at the sift stage, awaiting to hear if the judge will allow the appeal to proceed to a full hearing. Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd (ECJ) Closely related to the Neal case, an...
Thank you to everyone who completed the last Buddy Quiz, posted throughout December. We have posted the answers to the questions below so you can check how you did! QUESTION 1 As reported in the Buddy Weekly Bulletin on 8 November 2013, how many non-EU seasonal workers does the EU Commission estimate come to the EU every year? a) Over 25,000b) Over 50,000c) Over 75,000d) O...
Agency workers are often referred to colloquially as being temporary workers or ‘temps`, as a distinction from directly recruited, usually permanent staff. The recent case of Moran v Ideal Cleaning Services and Celanese Acetate Ltd in the EAT, however, has highlighted just how important that phrase is to the scope of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) and indeed the European Directive upon...
As has been well publicised, since 1 October 2012 every employer in the UK has been supplied with a staging date to automatically enroll eligible workers in a pension scheme and pay mandatory contributions. This is the biggest change to workplace pension provision in a generation. There is a need to relieve the pressure on the Government`s finances caused by a workforce who are living longer but...
An employee`s beliefs may or may not be known to an employer but issues can arise if these beliefs are manifested in the workplace. Does the law clearly distinguish between the protection it gives for holding a belief and the level of protection for how this belief is manifested? No, according to the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the recent case of Grace v Places for Children. In Grace the Clai...
In the case of Susan Rooney -v- Dundee City Council, the Employment Tribunal held that it was within the reasonable band of responses for the employer to do this. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (UKEATS/0020/13), in considering the Tribunal`s decision, has upheld this decision. Background Ms Rooney was a cashier supervisor for the Council. She received a final written warning in September 2...
A report by the charity, National Council for Palliative Care, has called for the government to introduce statutory bereavement leave for when a close relative dies. The report found that a third of workers bereaved in the last five years did not feel their employer treated them with compassion. It suggests that as well as statutory bereavement leave, a few kind words of condolence by a m...
2013 has seen significant changes for the Employment Tribunal system and there have been important changes in employment law which we have blogged about and written articles about throughout 2013 on buddy. But what does 2014 hold? Below are some of the major changes which will happen in 2014, the dates for some of the changes have been confirmed and others are awaited....
The question of whether the term ‘golliwog` is racist has been in the news over the last couple of weeks. There has been the Court of Appeal ruling that the term ‘golliwog` can be racist, whilst also in the news is the disciplinary action taken against a Sussex councillor for her comments about gollys. Court of Appeal case One of the issues before the Court of Appeal in the case of London...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed (Roberts -v- GB Oils Ltd UKEAT/-177/13/DM) that an employee invited to a disciplinary hearing should be allowed to be accompanied by a work colleague or trade union official of his choice. The employer should not reject the requested companion on the basis that they consider the companion to be unsuitable. Background The appellant, Mr Roberts, had be...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal last week upheld the Tribunal`s finding that a school caretaker had been unfairly dismissed following an allegation of sexual abuse (Z v A UKEAT/0203/13/SM). Facts The caretaker worked for a primary school. In March 2010 an allegation was made to the police that he had, some time before his employment began, sexually abused a child. The police subsequently...
This was the finding of the Court of Appeal in the case of Mr Gallop -v- Newport City Council [2013] EWCA Civ 1583. Background Mr Gallop had worked for the Council from 1997. He informed the Council in 2004 that he was suffering from stress and identified various symptoms. From this time he suffered from various other episodes, of which the Council were made aware including from his s...