Entries from March 2010

Age Discrimination Survey

March 27th, 2010 · No Comments

The Unemployment Equality (Age) Regulations were introduced in October 2006 and are designed to give a greater degree of protection to older workers. The regulations cover recruitment, training, promotion and dismissal.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) recently conducted a survey to determine whether the regulations were having their desired effect. The Fair Treatment [...]

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Tags: Employment Law

Radical Increase to Minimum Wage to be Part of Labour’s Election Manifesto

March 26th, 2010 · No Comments

This week, the Guardian reported that Labour’s 2010 election manifesto is likely to contain a proposal for a “radical increase” to the national minimum wage (NMW) should they remain in power.
No timescale for the change is mentioned, but it seems likely that, if it does occur, it will probably be in the 2011/2012 national minimum [...]

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Tags: Employment Law

Single Catastrophic Mistake Can Justify Dismissal

March 26th, 2010 · No Comments

The commander of a British nuclear submarine who ran his vessel aground on a large rock and was later court martialed as a result provides a good reminder that, in some circumstances, a single catastrophic mistake can be enough to justify dismissal.
The case stems from an incident in May 2008 in which Commander Steve Drysdale [...]

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Tags: Employment Law

Duty of Company Directors to Avoid Conflicts of Interest

March 21st, 2010 · No Comments

The case of Thermascan v Norman centred around the statutory duty set out in the Companies Act 2006 s.175(1), which relates to the duty a director of a company has to avoid conflicts of interest.
The legislation sets out the duty that a company director has when they resign from their company and start up a [...]

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Tags: Employment Law

Health and Safety and Unfair Dismissal

March 20th, 2010 · No Comments

In the recent case of Mr Jennings v H&P Freightway Limited, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld the original Tribunal’s decision that the claimant’s dismissal was not automatically unfair according to section 100 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
H&P Freightway had employed Mr Jennings as an HGV driver for less than 12 months. In November [...]

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Tags: Employment Law

Changes to Employee Terms and Conditions

March 19th, 2010 · No Comments

In an attempt to ensure that all staff were employed on the same pay and work structure, Asda recently transferred a number of store workers from an old set of pay and conditions to a new regime. While most of its employees agreed to the changes, some did not, and six test claimants brought claims [...]

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Tags: Employee Rights

Commission Unveils Construction Leadership Diversity Forum

March 13th, 2010 · No Comments

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is planning to launch a Construction Leadership Diversity Forum following the results of its Race and the Construction Industry Inquiry.
The Forum is one of a series of measures that the Commission has developed to help combat racism and the under-representation of certain groups within in the industry, including ethnic [...]

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Tags: Discrimination

The Relationship Between Annual Leave and Sick Leave

March 12th, 2010 · No Comments

Two recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) cases - Stringer v HM Revenue and Customs and Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA - have clarified the relationship between sick leave and paid annual leave under the European Working Time Directive.
The Court has determined that:

Statutory entitlement to paid annual leave continues to accrue over periods of sick [...]

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Tags: Employee Rights

Unfair Dismissal and Illegal Working

March 11th, 2010 · No Comments

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) case of San Ling Chinese Medical Centre v Lian Wei Ji has ruled that a contract of employment will not be rendered unenforceable on the grounds of illegality if a change in circumstances means that a work permit could be revoked - in order for the contract to be unenforceable, [...]

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Tags: Employee Rights

Hidden Danger to Economy from Under-Employment

March 6th, 2010 · No Comments

The latest unemployment figures have delivered a relatively pleasant surprise, indicating that unemployment stalled at 7.8% in November 2009. The UK’s rate of unemployment is a lot less than many people anticipated given the depth and length of the recession, particularly when compared to unemployment rates of 10% in both Europe and the US.
The business [...]

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Tags: Employment Law