The Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently criticised a Tribunal`s reasoning in outrightly refusing to allow a Claimant to rely upon covert recordings that she had made (Vaughan -v- London Borough of Lewisham and others UKEAT/0534/12/SM)....
The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said he wants to see a clampdown on "Gagging clauses" in severance agreements for NHS staff. He would also like to introduce wording into severance agreements making it clear people could still whistle-blow....
Clarkslegal has submitted a response to the Information Commissioner`s consultation regarding subject access requests under the Data Protection Act 1998. The consultation, which closed on 21st February 2013, sought views upon whether the Information Commissioner`s new draft code of conduct provided the correct level of guidance and practical examples to assist organisations to deal with access r...
PC Mike Baillon claimed he was forced out of his job after he was filmed smashing a disabled pensioner`s car window with his truncheon, after he was seen driving along country roads without a seatbelt. Mr Baillion stated that his colleagues made fun of him and defaced his locker at work. The video of the footage was uploaded onto YouTube and viewed more than 30 million times. An internal invest...
In the Irish case of Kenny v Minister for Justice, female civil servants carrying out clerical duties for the national police claimed that they were paid less than male employees carrying out the same work. These male employees were assigned to specific clerical posts reserved for members of the police, called ‘designated` posts, in an effort to reduce police numbers. The employees brought an eq...
In its response to its Consultation on Modern Workplaces the government has proposed extending the right to request flexible working to all employees with at least 26 weeks` continuous employment. The government has also proposed replacing the statutory procedure for considering requests with a new duty on employers to act reasonably within a reasonable period. In response to these proposals, A...
Following consultation the government has decided that the 90 days consultation period is not usually required. Reducing the minimum consultation period from 90 days to 45 days will enable employers to be more flexible and aid them by saving administrative and salary costs. It was seen to be important to allow employers to restructure more quickly especially at a time when the future of the company could be at risk....
Two recent cases have explored the circumstances in which a Tribunal can examine the validity of a previous warning, which formed part of the employer`s decision to dismiss an employee. The Court of Appeal confirmed in the case of Davies v Sandwell that only in limited circumstances will a tribunal be entitled to `re-open` an employer`s decision to issue a final warning, which the employer later...
The government is intending to introduce a number of changes to whistleblowing law through the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill ("ERRB") but whether this will prompt employers to encourage employees to blow the whistle remains to be seen. Whilst whistleblowers are protected against detriment and dismissal as a result of blowing the whistle, they often suffer in more subtle ways such as ostra...
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...
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...
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...
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....