On Wednesday 23 March we are holding a breakfast seminar at the Hilton Hotel in Reading. It will be from 7.45 - 10.15am and will be on the key subjects of employee engagement, motivation and leadership - Hiring, Firing and Inspiring....
Despite the Coalition`s recent Employer`s Charter designed to redress the balance of employment legislation in favour of businesses, it now appears to have undermined many of its pledges. The Government has introduced a new proposal to fine employers 50% of the total compensation award, over and above the payout to the Claimant, if employer`s are found to have breached an individual`s rights. The fine, which is essentially a tax on businesses that make mistakes, would most likely be limited to a maximum of £5000 and could be reduced to half if the employer paid within 21 days....
Dafydd Downes, Head of our Employment Team in Wales, has been confirmed to speak at the upcoming 5th Annual Working Time Forum, to be held at the Celtic Manor Resort on 2nd and 3rd March....
Given the increasing number of Employment Tribunal claims, the huge expense caused to employers in defending them and the suggestions that tribunal claims put employers off employing new staff, there has been much talk about the need to overhaul the current system...and today the government has proposed various reforms....
Andy Gray`s sacking by Sky has divided the nation, and not into those that know the off-side rule and those that don`t! His comments about the female assistant referee`s skills being limited because of her gender, which led to Sky deciding to dismiss him on the grounds that such sexist behaviour was completely unacceptable, has divided the nation into those that believe the punishment fitted the crime and those that see it as a complete over-reaction to a bit of banter. Interestingly the lady against whom the comments were made has made no complaint and appears to be of tough enough character to let it all wash over her head. A measured reaction that could also have been taken by Sky? Or was Sky right to adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to the "lads culture" and impose the harshest of punishments on its employee?...
We are exhibiting at The Wednesday Network in Reading, a monthly networking event hosted by the Reading Post and the Profit Masters Club....
In Fecitt and others v NHS Manchester EAT/0150/10 the EAT have held that in detriment claims under s.47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (commonly referred to as whistleblowing claims) it is for the employer to show that the dismissal was "in no sense whatsoever" on the grounds of the protected disclosure. This means that the disclosure must play no more than a trivial part in causing the detriment....
The UBS dress code, which ran to 44 pages, has become something of an internet phenomenon after being leaked in December 2010. The original dress code was extremely comprehensive. Interesting points raised include asking female staff to only wear underwear that matches their skin tone as well as a limit on the amount of jewellery a woman can wear (7 items at the most)....
Worryingly the announcement today by Nick Clegg regarding couples sharing maternity leave, where fathers can take some of the mother`s unused leave, goes even further than previously expected, by suggesting that the time off could be taken in shorter "blocks" of time rather than all at the same time or concurrently rather than consecutively....
In Lisboa v Realpubs Ltd and others the EAT held that a policy of trying to rebrand a pub where the Claimant worked to appeal to non gay customers constituted direct discrimination against a gay employee who was not comfortable with implementing such a policy....
Due to our increasing profile and expertise within the environmental sector, particularly in the development of new technologies in combatting climate change, Managing Partner Michael Sippitt has contributed the following article to The Actuary, the magazine for the Actuarial profession, investigating how Actuaries can play a vital role in assessing climate risk....
Most retirement policies reflect the current statutory retirement procedures which set out a national default retirement age of 65. Where this statutory procedure has been followed to the letter, employers have been able to retire employees without risk of unfair dismissal or age discrimination claims....
In the recently published Localism Bill, the same rules regarding the body that can be a qualifying body entitled to initiate the process for making a neighbourhood development order and as regards the neighbourhood area, are applicable to neighbourhood development orders as they are to neighbourhood development plans....
"Youth," according to Herbert Henry Asquith, "would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life." Whether or not this sentiment was foremost on the mind of the Judge in the tribunal claim brought by Miriam O`Reilly has yet to be known. We can be more certain of the fact however that today`s Judgment from the London Central ET will have far-reaching implications in the media....
The Government`s intention to involve local communities in planning matters was well publicised over a number of months but ministerial statements left it unclear how the proposed neighbourhood plans would relate to strategies and policies contained in local planning authority development plan documents, such as Core Strategies, that have been gradually emerging through the local development framework system introduced by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The Localism Bill published last month has clarified some of the main areas of uncertainty....
From 1 February 2011, the cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal increases from £65,300 to £68,400. Other changes coming into force on the same date include:...
Come April 2011 there will be a significant change to the treatment of income tax on post termination payments made to employees....
In Brandeaux Advisers (UK) Ltd and others v Chadwick (2010), the High Court looked at whether the employee`s conduct of sending large amounts of confidential information to her personal email account amounted to a repudiatory breach of contract....
The right to request flexible working currently applies to parents of children aged under 17, parents of disabled children aged under 18 and carers of dependant adults. This right is to be extended to parents of all children aged under 18 and will come into force on 6 April 2011....
Employers are still in the dark about how to deal with retirements falling after 1 October 2011....