Employment and HR

  • Age Discrimination - Life After the Abolition of the Default Retirement Age

    As a result of recent changes in the law, the last date on which an employer could lawfully notify an employee of a retirement dismissal using the statutory Default Retirement Age (DRA) provisions laid down by the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 ...

  • Age Discrimination - Qualifications and Pay Structure

    It is indirect discrimination for an employer to apply a provision, criterion or practice that is, on the face of it, age neutral but which puts people in a particular age group at a disadvantage, unless it can be shown to be a proportionate means of...

  • Can We Stop Them

    Restrictive covenants (clauses which are normally found in contracts of employment and partnership agreements, which restrict the right of a person to compete with his or her firm) have always been a difficult area of law. The courts are able to strike out...

  • Case Report: Dismissal due to stress contributed to by the employer

    In McAdie v Royal Bank of Scotland [2007] EWCA Civ 806 the Court of Appeal endorsed the EAT's approach in finding that an employer could fairly dismiss an employee for ill-health capability despite the fact that the employee's stress-related illness was...

  • Case Report: Ownership of contact lists - PennWell Publishing (UK) Ltd

    The high court has held that where a journalist employee created and kept all his contacts (including those made before joining the employer) on his employers computer system, that list of information belonged to the...

  • Case Report: Part-timers - dealing with bank and public holidays

    McMenemy v Capita Business Services Limited (Inner House, Court of Session) This case considered the fraught issue of how to deal with bank and public holidays for part timers. Capita employed Mr McMenemy on a part-time basis to work on Wednesdays,...

  • Case Report: Sick pay and disability discrimination

    O'Hanlon v Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs (CA) The Court of Appeal has confirmed the EAT's decision that when Mrs O'Hanlon's entitlement to sick pay had been exhausted under HM Revenue & Customs' sick pay policy, the employer's failure to...

  • Case Report: TUPE and service provision changes

    A recent employment tribunal decision, involving an employee at a PR agency, is the first time to our knowledge that the courts have looked at the provisions of the 2006 TUPE Regulations on service provision changes. This legislation introduced a new...

  • Case Report: Unfair Dismissal - What weight should be given to a previous warning?

    That has been a controversial issue in some recent cases. In Airbus UK -v-Webb the Claimant was employed as an aircraft fitter who had previously been given a final written warning in respect of being found washing his car in company time. It was made clear...

  • Changes to Family Friendly Legislation

    The Work and Families Act introduces measures intended to give more choice to families attempting to balance work and caring responsibilities. It imposes significant new obligations on employers.   The period of statutory maternity pay has been...

  • 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...

  • Collective Redundancy Consultation - Obligation to Consult in Special Circumstances

    A recent case before the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) dealt with a situation that is quite common in the construction industry, whereby problems encountered on site require adjustments to the working and staffing arrangements in order to adapt to the...

  • Compromise Agreements

    As a general rule, ‘out of court settlements’ of employment disputes are not legally binding in that they cannot exclude an employee's right to take the matter concerned to an Employment Tribunal (ET). A formal compromise agreement is one of the...

  • Compromise Agreements - Tax Position Clarified

    A compromise agreement is an agreement made between an employer and an employee who is having their contract of employment terminated. It sets out the terms under which the termination will take place and contains a provision that the employee will receive a...

  • Costs Awards in Employment Tribunal Proceedings

    Costs orders are the exception, rather than the rule, in Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings. However, where a claimant acts unreasonably in pursuing a claim, the ET can make a costs award in favour of the other party. In Dunedin Canmore Housing...

  • Damages for Wrongful Dismissal

    The Court of Appeal has ruled that an employee who suffered a loss as a result of findings of personal and professional misconduct made against him in disciplinary proceedings that were conducted in breach of his employment contract, which would not...

  • Data Protection Act 1998

    On 24th October 2007, all remaining provisions of the Act come fully into force including the need for Manual filing systems in existence before 24 October 1998 being required to comply fully with the Data Protection Directive...

  • 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?...

  • 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...

  • Employment Tribunal Statistics - September 2007

    According to the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal statistics there was a 15% increase in the amount of tribunal claims last year (1 April to 31 March 2007), and a total of 132,577 claims. They also confirmed the average tribunal awards in...

  • Failing to Prevent Bribery - Are You at Risk?

    The Bribery Act 2010 came into force on 1 July 2011. It created a new offence which can be committed by a commercial organisation if it fails to prevent persons associated with it from committing bribery on its behalf. A business can provide a defence by...

  • False Claims on a CV - What to Do

    According to research by the Risk Advisory Group, more than half of CVs submitted by job applicants contain lies or inaccuracies. These range from gaps in employment history to false claims regarding qualifications and failure to mention fraud committed...

  • Get the Christmas Party Right

    It’s that time of year again. Love them or hate them, the invitations to office Christmas parties will be arriving soon if they haven’t already. For employers, parties pose a particular threat. Here are some tips on making sure your...

  • Have you faced up to Facebook?

    Yasmin Awan outlines some of the dangers to employees and employers of social networking and offers some guidance to employers on dealing with workplace use of sites such as Facebook. What is Facebook? Facebook is the latest in a long line of popular...

  • Health and Safety - VDU Use

    More and more workers are spending a large part of their day looking at a computer screen. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 specifically deal with the health and safety issues associated with working with VDUs. The Health...
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