Employment Library

A Guide to Dealing with Requests for Flexible Working Arrangements
From 6 April 2009, the statutory right to request flexible working arrangements was extended to parents of children aged 16 and under. Employees with caring responsibilities for children aged up to 6 (18 and under where the child is disabled) and carers of...
Adoption - A Woman's Rights
Employers are reminded that women who are planning to adopt a child have similar rights as regards protection from unfavourable treatment as employees who are pregnant. This was illustrated by a landmark decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET). Anna...
Age Discrimination Checklist
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 aim to achieve equal treatment in employment and vocational training to eradicate discrimination on the grounds of age. Under the Regulations it is unlawful to make employment decisions based on a...
Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act
In 2007, the former Equal Opportunities Commission brought judicial review proceedings against the Government regarding some of the provisions of the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 , which made amendments to the Sex...
Collective Redundancy Consultation
Employers should be aware of the potentially serious financial consequences of failing to consult when making collective redundancies. If an employer is proposing to make redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days or...
Compensation for Illness in Unfair Dismissal Cases
In Adey-Jones v O’Dowd , the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered the extent to which an employee could claim compensation from her former employer for illness she suffered after she had been unfairly dismissed Mrs O’Dowd was responsible...
Dealing with Employee Absence
Employee absences can be both costly and disruptive. It is advisable to have systems in place to measure and analyse these costs so that you can identify problem areas. Are there patterns of absence? Does a particular department have a below average record?...
Disability Discrimination - Normal Day-to-Day Activities
For the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), a person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their normal day-to-day activities. In Chief Constable of...
Disability Discrimination by Association - Case Settled Out of Court
An out of court settlement has now been reached in the long-running case of Coleman v Attridge Law , which has confirmed that employees are protected from ‘associative discrimination’ under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). ...
Driving on Company Business
Research by the Health and Safety Executive shows that 20 people are killed and 250 are seriously injured each week in traffic accidents involving someone driving for business reasons. The threat of employers being prosecuted for road accidents involving...
Drug Policy - Recognising the Signs and What to Do
Research findings from Medscreen, based on drug testing carried out over the last ten years across a variety of professions, reveal that there has been a 3,000 per cent increase in the number of workers testing positive for cocaine. More than five per cent...
Employer Responsible for Work-Related Suicide
Employees, or their dependants, are entitled to claim damages for injury caused by a workplace accident if: • there was a duty of care owed to the injured person; • that duty was not performed; and • it was reasonably foreseeable that harm...
Employment Newsletter - July 2010
Welcome to our monthly Employment update! You will see that the format is now divided into three sections: news from the Employment Team; legal update on recent cases and legislation; and a lighter section highlighting a news story or two from...
Equal Treatment for Agency Workers - Later Not Sooner
After many failed attempts over the last six years by the EU Council of Ministers to agree on proposals to improve the employment rights of agency workers, the European Parliament finally adopted the Agency Workers Directive on 19 November 2008. Member...
Expired Disciplinary Warnings and Unfair Dismissal
The Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET), upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), that an employee was unfairly dismissed because his employer had taken account of an expired disciplinary warning when deciding to...
Faulty Work Boots - Employer Not Liable for Employee's Frostbite
The House of Lords ruled, in the case of Fytche v Wincanton Logistics , that an employer’s absolute obligation to maintain or repair protective equipment, under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, does not extend to a situation...
Graduate Recruitment
Most businesses would like to benefit from an influx of talent, enthusiasm and fresh ideas. The challenge is to achieve it at an acceptable cost. One option is to employ a recent graduate. In the past, most graduate recruitment was undertaken by large...
Guidance for Employers of Teleworkers
Nowadays, many people work away from the traditional office environment through the use of modern technology. The Government estimates that there are now more than two million ‘teleworkers’ in the UK who do some work from home, an increase of 65...
Immigration - A Brief Guide to the Points-Based System
The Points-Based Immigration System (PBS) has replaced the previous routes to work and study in the UK for migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. In addition, the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 , passed on 21...
In Brief - Advice on Occupational Asthma
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that each year between 1,500 and 3,000 people in Great Britain develop occupational asthma. The number rises to 7,000 cases a year if asthma made worse by work is taken into account. The cost to society is...
In Brief - Data Protection
The Office of the Information Commissioner has published a consolidated version of the guidance on data protection issues in employment. This brings together the four existing guides on recruitment and selection, employee records, monitoring at work and...
In Brief - Guidance on Cancer and Working
Changes introduced in December 2005 extended protection under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to those diagnosed with progressive forms of cancer. The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, together with the Working with Cancer group and the...
In Brief - Working at Height Regulations
Falls from height are the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of serious injury. In order to help prevent accidents of this type, revised Regulations came into force on 6 April 2005. The Work at Height Regulations (WAHR) 2005...
In Brief: ACAS E-learning Guides
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) now has ten electronic learning guides available on its website. The topics are: • bullying and harassment; • managing absence in the workplace; • handling redundancy; •...
In Brief: ACAS Guidance on Holiday and Holiday Pay
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has useful guidance for employers puzzling over staff holiday pay entitlements. These clarify the law in a useful question-and-answer format. Subjects covered include the entitlement of agency...
In Brief: Assessment of Repetitive Tasks Tool
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the most common occupational illness in Britain. They include problems such as low back pain, joint injuries and repetitive strain injuries of various sorts, and affect more than 500,000 people every year. They are often...
Increased Paternity Leave for New Fathers
The Government has announced its proposed timetable for introducing legislation that will allow new parents greater flexibility as to how they make use of the statutory period of maternity leave. Currently, fathers who are employees are entitled to two...
Informing and Consulting Employees
The EU Information and Consultation Directive 2002 establishes minimum requirements for consulting and informing employees on a wide variety of subjects. The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 implement the Directive in the UK. ...
Lesbian Soldier Sees Settlement Reduced
A lesbian soldier who won her claim for sex discrimination and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation has had her compensation award of £186,896 reduced after the Ministry of Defence (MOD) launched an appeal. In November 2007, the Leeds...
New Minimum Wage Rates
The Government has announced that it has accepted the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission (LPC) on new rates for the National Minimum Wage (NMW) that will come into force on 1 October 2010. As announced last year, the adult rate of the NMW is to be...
New Right to Request Training
The right to request time to train was included in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 , which received Royal Assent in November 2009. The introduction of the right is to be phased. From April 2010, it is available to employees in...
Night Sleeper Entitled to National Minimum Wage
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) confirmed ( Burrow Down Support Services Ltd. v Rossiter ) that a night worker who was required to be available to deal with security issues at his employer’s premises, but who could sleep for much of his shift on...
Pregnant Women and Risk Assessments
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require all employers to carry out an assessment of workplace risks that could harm employees and to do whatever is ‘reasonably practicable’ to control these risks. In particular,...
Preventing Occupational Deafness
The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 introduced tighter controls on exposure to noise levels in the workplace, to protect workers from damage to their hearing. The noise level at which workers are required to have hearing protection available is...
Protecting Business Interests
When an employee leaves to go to work for another organisation, their employer may wish to have in place safeguards to protect sensitive information relating to the business, to prevent it from falling into the hands of a competitor. One possible way of...
Race Discrimination and the Burden of Proof
Recent case law has led to confusion as to whether Section 54A of the Race Relations Act 1976 applies to direct discrimination on the grounds of someone’s colour. In Okonu v G4S Security Services (UK) Ltd. , the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT)...
Resolving Workplace Disputes
In order to establish what it is hoped will be a more flexible system for dealing with workplace disputes, as of 6 April 2009 the Employment Act 2008 repealed the Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures in their entirety. In their place is a voluntary...
Sickness Absence and Holiday Leave
The EC Working Time Directive lays down minimum health and safety requirements for the organisation of working time. The purpose of the entitlement to paid annual leave is to enable a worker to rest and to enjoy a period of relaxation and leisure. The...
Staff Handbooks and Contractual Rights
It is not uncommon for employees’ contracts of employment to expressly incorporate the staff handbook, although much of its contents will refer to policy matters rather than having contractual status. Following a recent decision of the Court of Appeal...
Stress - An Employer's Duties
Dealing with stress in the workplace is a difficult issue for employers. As well as specific duties under health and safety legislation, employers owe their employees a common law duty to take reasonable care to safeguard their health and safety and this...
TUPE - Post Transfer Consultation
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has considered ( AMICUS and TGWU v Glasgow City Council ) whether the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) require a transferee employer to consult with the union representatives...
TUPE - Post-Transfer Obligations and Collective Agreements
The Court of Appeal has overturned the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in Alemo-Herron and others v Parkwood Leisure Ltd . Parkwood Leisure Ltd. had taken over a company that acquired employees of the London Borough of Lewisham’s...
TUPE Regulations 2006
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) apply to any size of business and protect the employment rights of employees when their employer changes as a result of the relevant transfer of a business or a part of one....
The Civil Partnership Act
When the Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force in December 2005, amendments were made to the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 in order to make it clear that the status of a civil partner is comparable with that of a spouse....
The Corporate Manslaughter Act
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 established a new statutory offence of corporate manslaughter (corporate culpable homicide in Scotland). An organisation is guilty of the offence if the way in which it manages or organises its...
The New 'Fit Note' System
Employers are reminded that from 6 April 2010 a new ‘fit note’ regime replaced the old system whereby doctors issued hand-written sick notes. Under the new system, a doctor will provide a patient who is off work for more than seven days on...
Time Limits for Equal Pay Claims - Stable Employment Relationships
Local authorities across the UK face thousands of claims from women who contend that they have been paid less than men for doing similar work or work of equal value. Following a recent decision of the Court of Appeal, women who have worked for the same...
Triangular Agency Working Arrangements - The Correct Approach
A further case ( East Living Ltd. v Sridhar and TSG Services Ltd.) has confirmed the approach an Employment Tribunal (ET) should take when deciding whether or not an agency worker is in reality the employee of the end user company. Mr Sridhar was supplied...
Unfair Dismissal Claims - A Minute Late is Too Late
An employee must bring an unfair dismissal claim within three months of his or her effective date of termination and the time limits for presenting claims to the Tribunals Service are normally strictly enforced. If the deadline is missed, the Employment...
Varying Contracts of Employment
In the current economic climate, many employers are seeking ways to reduce staff costs. For example, both British Airways and British Telecom are reported to have recently offered staff increased time off work in return for a deduction in pay. However, when...
Whistleblowing - Allegations Arising During Tribunal Claims
When someone believes they have been dismissed or suffered a detriment at work because they have made a protected disclosure under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA), they can bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal (ET). Last year, there were...
Whistleblowing Disclosure Must Be In Good Faith
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) – often referred to as the ‘Whistleblowing’ Act – came into force in July 1999. PIDA inserted new sections into the Employment Rights Act 1996 which give workers legal protection when...
Workers on Long-Term Sick Leave - Non-Payment of Holiday Pay
The judgment of the House of Lords in the long-running case of Stringer and others v HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will be a blow to many businesses struggling to survive in the current economic climate. The Law Lords have overturned the decision of the...
Workplace Bullying
Recent allegations of bullying within 10 Downing Street have raised the profile of a subject which receives relatively little coverage outside the employment tribunals, in spite of indications that instances of intimidatory behaviour are widespread in the...
World Cup Fever
The 19th FIFA World Cup starts on 11 June 2010. 32 countries will do battle in a total of 64 matches over a period of one month leaving one victorious team. Football frenzy is about to engulf us whether or not we are fans of “the beautiful...
Written Statement of Employment Particulars
A contract of employment may be verbal but all employees, whether part-time or full-time, are entitled by law to be given a written statement setting out the main particulars of their employment, provided their employment lasts for one month or more. All the...

Library

Latest News

	Assessment of Repetitive Tasks Tool
	ET1 Claim Forms and Illegibility
	Employer Not Liable for Remark Made by Agency Worker
	HSE - 'Do Your Bit' Campaign
	Employee Ordered to Repay £150,000 in Fraud Case
	Out of Court Settlement in Disability Discrimination Case
	Court Supports Ex-Director's Right to Start New Business
	Employment Contract Valid Where Illegality Not Shown
	TUPE and the Meaning of 'Affected Employees'
	Compromise Agreements - Claims of Misrepresentation

Copyright © 2010 Buckles Solicitors LLP | All Rights Reserved
Buckles Solicitors LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England OC311739 | Buckles Solicitors LLP is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority | Details of the Solicitors code of conduct can be found at www.sra.org.uk