Age Discrimination - Be Prepared
There are currently 20 million people aged 50 and over in the UK and the figure is expected to reach 27 million by 2030. On 1 October 2006, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations came into effect. This legislation makes it unlawful to...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...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...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...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...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...Changes to Statutory Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
The Government is keen to promote alternative ways of settling workplace disputes. Since October 2004, employers and employees have been required to follow statutory minimum procedures to make sure that disputes are discussed at work. Not only...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...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...Employee Fraud
Fraud is estimated to cost the UK economy between £13billion and £16billion a year and fraud by employees accounts for 60 per cent of all frauds committed against businesses. In a study by Leicester University, over seventy per cent of employees...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...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...Fuel Rates Down
HMRC announced on 29 Jan that the rates payable for car fuel (where a mileage rate is paid to company car users for business travel) was to be reduced from 1 February 2007. The mileage rates are payable when an employee uses a...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? ...Immigration and the Points-Based System
Under the Points Based System (PBS) for immigration most people applying to come to or remain in the UK to work or study who are not nationals of the European Economic Area (EEA) or Swiss nationals will require a certificate of sponsorship from a...Pension Scheme Deficits Action Plan
In accordance with the Pensions Act 2004 all defined benefit schemes must have regular actuarial valuations to ensure that the scheme meets the ‘Statutory Funding Objective’ (SFO). To ensure SFO compliance, the...Pension Schemes and Age Discrimination
The parts of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 that apply to pension schemes came into force on 1 December 2006. The Regulations prohibit age-related discrimination and harassment, allowing discriminatory treatment...Recruitment - Preventing Illegal Working Without Discrimination
Hardly a day goes by without there being some mention of illegal immigration in the news. The number of people discovered working here unlawfully has risen sharply in recent years. There has been much talk of the possible introduction of a...Statutory Maternity, Adoption and Paternity Pay Rates
The standard weekly rate of Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay increased...Tackling Work-Related Stress
Research commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) indicates that about half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress at a level they believe is affecting their health. In addition, up to five million people feel "very"...The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006
Owners and managers of commercial premises, employers whose workers use, install, remove, maintain or demolish premises that may contain asbestos and businesses providing construction or building services are all affected by the Control...Unfair Dismissal and Illegality
It is an established principle of law that illegal contracts are unenforceable. In a recent case, the Sheffield Employment Tribunal (ET) refused to allow a claim for unfair dismissal brought by a woman who had been employed for three years as a chef in a Thai...
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