The Government announced a new Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) rate of 5% for purchases of residential property where the consideration exceeds £1m. The effective date of this change will be on or after 6 April 2011. In this respect "the effective date" means the date of legal completion....
Previously Wills often included a clause incorporating a discretionary trust (‘the NRB Trust`) in which the NRB could be held. The beneficiaries of such trust would include the surviving spouse and family....
Observers argue that caste based discrimination is a serious problem facing Asian communities in the UK. A report published by the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance found that more than half of those from traditionally lower-status Asian backgrounds have found themselves victims of prejudice and abuse. Nine per cent of respondents felt that they had been passed over for promotion and ten per cent said that they had been paid less because of their caste. A further five per cent said they had experienced threatening behaviour because of their caste....
The case of BSkyB Limited v EDS (now HP Enterprise Services UK Limited) was not under the radar of employment lawyers or HR professionals as, on the face of it, it seemed to have no relevance in the employment sphere. However, the judgment released in January 2010, which I am told by my colleagues in our Commercial and Technology department was awaited with bated breath in the IT sector, raises some interesting and topical employment themes which serve to encourage organisations to review their recruitment procedures....
Budget 2010 - Key issues for HR Confirmation that the government is considering scrapping the default retirement age or raising it - a final decision is expected in the summer. The national minimum wage will rise from the current £5.80 an hour in October by 2.2 per cent to £5.93 an hour....
A Christian nurse, who was moved to a desk job after refusing to remove her crucifix while at work, has lost her discrimination claim....
Only 22% of employers believe that the introduction of Statements of Fitness for Work, commonly known as "Fit Notes", will reduce levels of absence in their workplace. This was the finding of a survey of 1,400 private and public sector employers conducted by Kronos, the workforce management consultancy....
The withdrawal of valuable travel perks by BA for striking cabin crew and the hard hitting comments of Chief Executive Willie Walsh that once lost, they will never be restored, serve to confirm that the current industrial dispute appears to be rather different from previous disputes involving BA staff, including cabin crew. A group of 95 academics say in a letter to the Guardian that Willie Walsh`s actions and comments can only be explained as an attempt to "break" the union, something which BA strongly denies. UNITE say BA are victimising strikers for taking part in lawful industrial action and that they are taking legal advice, not for the first time in this dispute....
The Government has released its response to the Family Friendly Taskforce report, which was published last month, noting that employers need more help realising the benefits of flexible working to their business....
Change is in the air (as well as pollen!). No less than 8 new pieces of employment legislation are now in force as of 6 April 2010. Some will have a more immediate impact than others:...
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was introduced in the Planning Act 2008 as a levy on development to provide funding for infrastructure to serve development across the area of the charging authority rather than the infrastructure directly required for that individual development. It replaces the proposal, at the Bill stage of the Act, to charge a tax on the increase in development value resulting from the grant of planning permission, to be called Planning Gain Supplement. Liability to CIL will derive from the grant of planning permission....
The EAT has held in the case of BP plc v Elstone, that a worker, in bringing a claim for whistle-blowing against its current employer, need not have been employed by them at the time of making the protected disclosure....
It has long been the policy of the UK government that the market should be self regulating, with as little intervention as possible. This has also been true in supporting innovation in the environmental sector, although there are hints that this policy is starting to change. By contrast the US government has, through its federal stimulus and ARPA-E program, channelled millions of dollars into environmental start-ups. So much so that recently John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, stated that the government was now his favourite co-investor. Whilst government stimulus has undoubtedly supported many companies that were starved of credit as banks tried to counter the financial downturn, it has also skewed the market considerably....
Amongst other environmental measures, the star feature of the 2010 budget is the announcement of a £2bn Green Investment Bank (GIB). The environmental measures announced in the 2010 budget include:...
2010 looks to be a year of recovery for the global cleantech market. Both the public and private sectors are beginning to realise the potentially lucrative market opportunities that cleantech has to offer in the medium to long term....
The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), established in 2005 to accelerate climate change abatement by facilitating investment in environmental technologies, has underperformed in delivering its objectives due to instability of, and relatively low, carbon prices. This has resulted in inadequate investment being channelled into environmental technologies and services, an originally intended by-product of the scheme....
In Taylor v XLN Telecom, it was confirmed that in assessing an award for injury to feelings there is no requirement for the employee to prove he had knowledge of the act of discrimination....
From an HR perspective, the immediate prospects as the country returns to growth, albeit very limited at present, seems to suggest more of the same. However making that assumption has long term consequences as the way staff are handled can lead to poor morale, lack of cooperation and potential staff turnover. It is certainly true that as we move into what hopefully will be a period of sustained growth, retaining top talent will be a critical success factor. This cannot be taken for granted. The emphasis needs to be on improving productivity as hopefully, export led increases in production become more widespread....
Following on from the article "Trimming The Fat", the statement that "handling a restructure or any other form of cost-cutting exercise properly can go some way to help protect your reputation as a good employer and to maintain staff morale" is perhaps the most important thought to take away with you. Unfortunately, doing that properly doesn`t always come without financial outlay....
The final form of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 ("the Regulations") was laid before Parliament on 21 January 2010. David Cameron has recently "prayed against" the Regulations to request that they be revoked, which will trigger a time-limited debate by Parliament and a ‘stand or fall` vote. There is no scope to amend the regulations during this process....