For over 10 years a succession of cases has made it clear that a failure to engage in alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, might lead to negative costs consequences in litigation...
The Office for National Statistics has launched an investigation into how it measures the number of British workers employed on zero hours contracts. It seems that nobody really knows how many there are. Last week, the business secretary, Vince Cable, last week wrote to the ONS to raise his concerns about "the lack of reliable statistics that are available on zero-hours contracts". The topic hit...
The opportunity for Cardiff to lead the development of smart, sustainable cities internationally was outlined last week at a conference hosted by Cardiff Council and the Commonwealth Environmental Investment Platform (CEIP) at Cardiff`s SWALEC Stadium. Attended by business and sustainability leaders from across the UK and internationally, the proceedings of the conference demonstrated the environmental and economic benefits available to cities, especially those in the Commonwealth, by sharing their expertise in technology, innovation and knowledge....
In March 2013, the government launched a consultation seeking views on proposals for reforming apprenticeships in England. It described the present system as "prescriptive". The response to that consultation, in the form of an "implementation plan", has now been published. Existing apprenticeship frameworks, governed by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (ASCLA 2009),...
The Home Office has published a new, updated version of its `Full guide for employers on preventing illegal working in the UK`. This version replaces the previous one published in May 2012. The substantive content remains the same but the main changes in the updated guidance are: Highlighting that the current restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals being will come to an end on 31 De...
Clarkslegal`s legal alliance, TAGLaw, recently held its 29th international conference from October 21st through 23rd in Munich. In attendance at the conference was Head of Corporate, Ashan Arif....
In a refreshingly clear judgment in an area that is notoriously complex and hard for employers to get right, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the length of a non solicitation clause is a "powerful factor" in assessing the overall reasonableness of the clause and that when the restriction was for "only six months", that was a "fundamental consideration of reasonableness". The Court suggested...
In Lockwood v Department of Work and Pensions (1) Cabinet Office (2) (2013), the Court of Appeal has found that although the Department of Work and Pensions discriminated against a young employee on grounds of her age when applying their voluntary redundancy policy, the discrimination was objectively justified and hence lawful ( The case is helpful in clarifying what is meant by direct discrimin...
InCroft Vets Ltd and others v Butcher, the EAT has upheld a tribunal`s decision that an employer, in not paying for an employee with work-related stress and depression to have private psychiatric counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy, breached its duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010. The adjustments, which were recommended by a consultant psychiatrist, were suf...
The EAT case of Somerset County Council v Chaloner (2013) highlights the importance of ensuring that when redundant employees are being considered for redeployment, they must be given a fair opportunity of understanding exactly the nature of the role being applied for. So, be careful when devising a new role in a restructure and ensure that the job description is properly finalised before conduct...
In the recent case of Twinmar Holdings Limited -v- Klarius UK Limited the High Court gave helpful guidance to Tenants on their responsibilities for repairing/replacing glass fibre reinforced polyester roof lights. Roof lights of this type regularly cause difficulties in dilapidations claims and the Twinmar case has already had some publicity as a result of this...
In March we blogged that the ICO had launched a consultation asking for feedback on a new code of practice for handling data subject access requests under the Data Protection Act 1998. The ICO received 86 responses in total and the new code was published in August this year. The ICO did make some changes to the code based on the responses it received. For example, the code now includes secti...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal in the case of Wright v North Ayrshire Council has provided some clarity on the correct test for determining constructive dismissal claims, and the extent to which an employer`s contractual breach should contribute to a resignation. The Claimant was employed as a Care Assistant at the Council from December 2003 until she resigned in November 2010. She subsequen...
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013 and even though certain sections, such as changes to whistle blowing, came into effect on 25 June 2013 until now there has been no indication of when Section 16 would come into force. Section 16 grants an employment tribunal the power to impose financial penalties on employers. However the Minister of Employmen...
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has delayed its proposed revocation of the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/314) in England....
Over one hundred HR practitioners in the Thames Valley attended a joint celebration of both CIPD and Clarkslegal`s centenaries, at an evening reception that reflected on the development of HR throughout the past 100 years and its vision for the future...
This is the conclusion reached by the all-Party Commission of Inquiry into Sustainable Construction and the Green Deal....
The recent economic climate has seen a growth in empty commercial premises; some of which remain empty for quite some time. The changes to the business rates regime introduced in 2008 mean that property owners must now pay business rates even on empty properties. It is hardly surprisingly that landlords have been seeking to find ways to minimise the impact of this harsh reality. Charities (who qualify for business rates relief) have been able to enjoy the opportunity to utilise some of these empty property thus relieving the landlord of the burden of empty property business rates. Some initiatives have however caused problems and some recent case law shows how local authorities are aggressively challenging some schemes, potentially saddling the charities involved with a substantial business rates bill....
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has recently revealed that a 325 seat Airbus A330 belonging to a UK based carrier was discovered to be flying on autopilot when both the pilot and co-pilot had fallen asleep. The two pilots involved blamed fatigue, pointing out that because of the long shifts which they had been putting in over the peak holiday season, they had only managed to have 5 hours slee...
The newspapers have reported keenly on racing pundit, John McCririck`s, employment tribunal hearing this week. The 73 year old racing pundit has brought an action for age discrimination against his former employers, Channel 4. Aside from being dropped from the Channel 4 presenting team; McCririck has also criticised the fact that he found out about his dismissal from sports editor at Channel 4,...