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....
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...