Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to mitigate the impact a provision, criterion or practice has on a disabled employee....
Under the Working Time Regulations a worker is entitled to a daily rest break if their daily working time exceeds six hours....
The Equal Pay Act (now the Equality Act) was introduced to ensure that men and a women performing equal work would receive the same pay, unless the difference could be shown to be because of a material factor other than sex. However a recent case has shown that a successful claim may result in the woman receiving more pay than her comparator. A woman can pursue an equal pay claim wher...
Two cases have been reported concerning staff sleeping on the job and their rights to receive the NMW for this time. In both cases, the EAT highlighted the danger of confusing ‘work` for minimum wage purposes with ‘working time` under the Working Time Regulations 1998, as the tribunal in both cases appears to have done....
ACAS have published social networking guidance. It gives some tips on managing performance, recruitment/disciplinary issues, grievances, bullying, defamation, data protection and privacy....
Often, when faced with an employee who has gone AWOL,employers will write to the last known address, stating that if the employeedoes not get in touch within a specified period, it will be considered that hehas resigned. In the recent case of Zulhayir v JJ Food Services Ltd, the EAThas held that in such circumstances, it cannot be said that there has been a ‘self-dismissal’.The...
It has been reported that the Prime Minister has secretly commissioned his own legal advice on the upcoming Agency Workers Regulations (AWR). Mr Cameron is reported to be concerned about the impact the AWR could have on the fragile UK economy. He is thought to have sought advice on ways in which the AWR could be diluted....
Re-launched on 4 September 2011, the UKBA’S website has brought together all the agencies online content. The integration covers the Visa Services website and most of the 200 country websites which have been hosted by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and commercial partners overseas. Remaining country websites are due to be brought into this website by the end of September.  ...
There have been a spate of cases recently concerning employees & their use of Facebook to moan about work. However, this case shows that derogatory comments about work by an employee will not always justify dismissal....
The Crown Prosecution Service have announced this week that they intend to try the first Defendant allegedly guilty of offences under the Bribery Act on 14 October 2011. Munir Yakub Patel, a clerk in the Redbridge Magistrates Court, has been charged with requesting and receiving a bribe intending to improperly perform his functions under Section 2 of the Act. He allegedly accep...
Given the recent press regarding Government proposals to reduce Tribunal claims it is perhaps surprising that there has been an 8% fall in claims to the Tribunal from last year. However this fall should be taken in context - last year`s figures showed a 56% increase in claims and this year`s figures represent a 44% increase on the 2008-9 number. The small reduction this year...
The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 come into force on 1 October. The Regulations will see a shift in the rights of agency workers or ‘temps`. All those who use agency workers should be aware of these changes....
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has been defending cuts to the armed forces which will reportedly see around 12,000 jobs being cut from the Army and RAF combined. This week alone 930 RAF and 920 Army personnel are being told that they will be made redundant. The political parties are typically each blaming eachother for the redundancies, the Government effectively says it inherited a mess...
Are you aware of the pensions auto enrolment reforms? According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development`s (CIPD) survey, 53% of workers in private and voluntary sectors are totally unaware of the pension reforms....
Another century of pay inequality? The BBC reports today on a study that claims the gender pay gap will last for another 98 years....
CIPD research has shown that, despite the government`s immigration cap, the number of firms planning to recruit migrant workers has risen. Out of organisations who took part in the institute`s summer Labour Market Outlook survey, 25% said they planned to recruit migrants in the next quarter. This is a rise of 22% from the survey carried out in the spring. Six in ten employers saw a lack of job-specific skills in the UK as the reason for continuing to look abroad....
Results of research published this week predict that obesity rates in the UK will have risen to 40% of the population by 2030....
Buddy put together a survey for Buddy members covering the Government`s proposals to change employment law with the aim of encouraging a more flexible and family friendly approach at work, as set out in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Consultation on Modern Workplaces. The results proved very interesting and enabled us to gauge your opinion and feed this into the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Consultation Working Group, which Clarkslegal was invited to join. The CBI has now published its response to the Consultation with the aim of influencing policymaking, to gain the best deal for employers. We would like to give a big thank you to everyone who gave their time to complete the survey and giving Clarkslegal a hand in lobbying the government! The consultation has now closed, with a response from the Government expected in November 2011. The Government`s proposals and the response to the proposals from both Buddy`s survey (from employer "Respondents" shown in blue) and Clarkslegal/CBI (shown in italics), are set out below....
The case of Ricketts v Parson Cross Domestic Abuse Project ET/2802125/10 will act as a reminder to employers of the importance of dealing with disciplinary matters consistently. In this case the Claimant, who the Tribunal accepted had attended work under the influence of alcohol, won her claim of unfair dismissal The Claimant was employed as a support worker for domestic abus...
The results of a survey of over 1000 employees by the world’s largest executive recruitment business Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann have revealed that good communication skills, integrity and motivational skills are valued as the most important leadership qualities by employees. The majority of the respondents to the survey however felt that the management in their organisation was lacking in su...