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...
Michael Sippitt, Chairman of Clarkslegal LLP is challenging entrepreneurs and financial investors to get serious about developing environmental technologies across the Commonwealth, as he introduced the Commonwealth Environmental Investment Platform (the CEIP), at the Green Growth Road Show in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday, 13 February....
Education is big business. The last two decades have seen rapid growth in the for-profit education industry. Apollo Group, a Nasdaq listed for-profit education industry heavyweight which is also part of the S&P 500 group of companies, and the owner of such brands as the University of Phoenix in the US and BPP University College in the UK, saw consistent exponential growth from its inception on Nasdaq. Kaplan, another for-profit education provider wholly owned by the Washington Post had revenues of US$2.5b in 2011, whilst DeVry Inc., listed on the NYSE, had a market capitalisation of US$1.62b at the time of writing. The sheer scale of these three examples serves to show just how big the industry is....
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...
Although it is a general principle under English law that parties should be free to negotiate their own contract terms, the Court may decide that a clause is "unenforceable" in certain circumstances, even where both parties have signed up to it....
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...
Optimism in our world seems in short supply. The persistent economic challenges of many developed countries have not surprisingly dominated their domestic or regional politics. Daunting social and economic problems of many developing countries seem to have no end in sight. Hostilities in troubled countries create great sadness and damage prospects for future prosperity. There are many examples of weak governance damaging economic growth and investment....
Another recent case has dealt with the question of whether a redundancy policy can be contractual...
As the UK`s immigration rules for overseas students continue to tighten, the number of individuals coming to the UK from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to study has been declining....
A very significant recent case, Walter Lilly v Mackay [2012] EWHC 1773 (TCC) has provided the construction industry with some much needed guidance and clarity in relation to treatment of many of the common elements of construction disputes: extensions of time, concurrent delay and loss and expense....
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....
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....
Our nominated charities in 2012 were Alexander Devine`s Children`s Hospice, Cardiff Foodbank and The Mayhew Animal Centre....
On Sunday 17th March we are entering three corporate teams in the Reading Half Marathon. The corporate relay aims to promote healthy workforces and enables companies to enter teams of four who each run approximately three miles of the thirteen mile course....
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...
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....
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))...