As you know, employees have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or a trade union representative at disciplinary or grievance hearings under s.10 Employment Relations Act 1999. This includes meetings from which redundancy may follow. Some employers will … Continue reading
Author Archives: James Carmody
Rest Breaks and the Working Time Regulations
12 July 2013: What is my right to rest breaks under the Working Time Regulations 1998? Daily rest: All adult workers must be given a minimum of eleven consecutive hours rest during each 24 hour period during which he … Continue reading
Redundancy in London
9 June 2013: Unfortunately, its increasingly common for employees in London to be made redundant at some time or other during their career. Mostly people assume that redundancy applies in a traditional redundancy situation, when a business closes down, … Continue reading
From Compromise Agreement to Settlement Agreement
8 July 2013: Compromise Agreements to change their name to Settlement Agreements From the 29 July 2010 ”compromise agreements’ will become known as ‘settlement agreements’ but other than the name, the form will not be changed (see S.14 of the Enterprise and … Continue reading
Confidentiality, Restrictive Covenants and Linkedin profiles
7 July 2013: Who Owns Your LinkedIn Profile? Nowadays, LinkedIn profiles and other social media are often an essential part of everyday work. Most or all of those contacts will have been built up over years of working for the employer. … Continue reading
Whistleblowing; Protected Disclosures and the Public Interest
28 June 2013: Since 1998 it has been unlawful to subject someone to a detriment or dismiss them as a result of having made a Protected Disclosure, also known as whistle-blowing). Making a Protected Disclosure includes telling the employer that … Continue reading
Confidential Employee Information and the Data Protection Act
21 June 2013: Press reports this week have thrown up questions about the impact of the Data Protection Act 1998, and whether it is necessary to redact published documents to remove employee information such as names, unless consent has been given … Continue reading
New Cap on Unfair Dismissal Awards
15.04.2021: At present, in very general terms, a successful claimant in an unfair dismissal claim will get a basic award (the same as a statutory redundancy payment) plus a compensatory award for loss of earnings, pension etc. The compensatory award will … Continue reading
Parental leave increases from three to four months
8 March 2013: The permitted period of parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child rises today from three to four months. The right to request flexible working is also extended to agency workers returning from a period of … Continue reading
Holidays while off sick
15 March 2013: You may have read about the fate of Paul Marshallsea in the press this week. Having wrestled with a shark to save two children while on holiday in Australia, he was sacked by the charity he worked for … Continue reading
Covert Recordings At Work
22 March 2013: Nowadays, everyone seems to be able to secretly record meetings at work on their mobile phone without anyone else knowing. In Vaughan v London Borough of Lewisham in the EAT in March 2012, Ms Vaughan wanted to … Continue reading
Obesity and Disability
5 April 2013 In Walker v Sita Information Networking Computing Ltd, Mr Walker weighed over 21 stone and suffered from a wide range of symptoms, many of which were exacerbated by obesity. The Tribunal held that Mr Walker was … Continue reading
Redundancy Consultation
19 April 2013 Ordinarily, if you are making staff redundant, you only need to carry out individual consultation. However if you are making more than 20 people redundant from a particular establishment in a 90 day period, you must … Continue reading
General Complaints and Discrimination
10 May 2013 Many employees base discrimination claims about the general gripes about how they are treated. Some employees will throw in all claims they can possibly think of, kitchen sink and all and call it ‘discrimination’. However in the … Continue reading
Re-organisations and reductions in pay
10 May 2013 Sometimes, as part of a reorganisation, an employer may want to re-grade staff, and reduce pay under the new grading structure. Employees can be understandably reluctant to agree. In Sandford v Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS … Continue reading
Can you fairly dismiss because of disruptive antagonism between two employees?
17 May 2013 Most employers are aware that under the Employment Rights Act it can be fair to dismiss for redundancy, misconduct, and capability / absence. However the mop-up provision of dismissal for ‘Some Other Substantial Reason’ under s.98(1)(b) ERA … Continue reading
Employing Aliens
24 May 2013 Employing aliens? No, not green men from Mars. Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, it is a criminal offence to knowingly employ a person who is not legally entitled to work in the UK. On … Continue reading
Fees to bring Employment Tribunal Claims
31 May 2013: Many employers will be encouraged by the announcement that from Monday 29 July 2013, Claimants will have to pay a fee to submit a claim in the Employment Tribunal. Fees will be a £250 issue fee, and a … Continue reading
Employee brings multiple discrimination claims without merit
7 June 2013: ‘Will no one Rid Me of this Turbulent Priest?’ Thomas Beckett may have got himself murdered in the Cathedral in 1170 after King Henry uttered the famous line quoted above, however for modern day employers, this solution is … Continue reading
Bullying at Work and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997
July 2010: The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 was originally brought in to force to combat the likes of stalkers and similar pests. However subsequent case law suggests that the Act may be invoked to protect employees against harassment … Continue reading
Bank Holidays and Part Time Workers
July 2010: Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, all workers have the right to 5.6 weeks paid holiday per annum including bank holidays. For someone working Monday to Friday, this equates to 28 days a year including bank holidays. For … Continue reading
Part Time Workers
The Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 aim to ensure that part-time workers are treated no less favourably in their employment conditions thancomparable full-timers, unless this is justified on objective grounds. Objective Justification: Will depend on the factual circumstances in each particular … Continue reading
Redundancy and Bumping
An example of ‘bumping’ is when Jo Blogg’s position is redundant, but you ‘bump’ out John Smith from another job, make him redundant instead and slot Jo Bloggs into the position formerly occupied by John Smith. Another example is … Continue reading
Reasonable Disciplinary Investigation
When considering whether to dismissal for misconduct, a question that often comes up is how much investigation should the employer carry out first? It’s commonly known that under the ‘Burchell’ test: the employer must establish that he believed the employee … Continue reading
Recouping overpayments of salary
July 2010: Nowadays, most employees get paid directly into their bank account, and don’t notice very often what goes in, and assume that the employer can correctly calculate what they should receive per month. Employers however often get it wrong, … Continue reading
Right to be Accompanied at Grievance Hearing
July 2010: Employees have the statutory right to be accompanied at disciplinary and grievance hearings by a colleague or a trade union representative. The statutory right does not extend to legal representatives or family members. If the employee makes a request … Continue reading
Equality Act 2010
July 2010: The Equality Act comes into effect on the 1st October 2010, with some provisions being delayed till 2011. I will not attempt to summarise all of the provisions of the Act. However Some of the main points to be … Continue reading
Pregnancy, Health and Safety
July 2010: Under the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every employer has to assess workplace risks for all their employees, and take practical action to control those risks. In addition, employers must take particular account of … Continue reading
Can I Sue for Stress at Work?
July 2010: Everybody encounters a degree of stress at work, and arguably stress in moderation can be a positive thing. Few people would therefore ever want to bring a claim in relation to occupational stress, though such claims do arise. … Continue reading