The Government is to introduce a Trade Union Bill to impose new restrictions on industrial action ballots. Among other things, the Bill will introduce a 50% turnout requirement for a valid ballot on industrial action and limit the period during which a ballot is valid to authorise industrial action to four months. Although the Bill[…]
In Plumb v Duncan Print Group Ltd, the EAT has held that Reg 13(9) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 SI 1998/1833 must be read as permitting a worker to take annual leave within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it accrued where he or she was unable or unwilling[…]
In Basildon Academies v Amadi and anor, the EAT has held that there was no express or implied contractual obligation on a tutor to inform the school at which he worked part-time that an allegation of sexual assault had been made against him by a pupil at another school where he also worked. There was[…]
Risk of Belief by Public of Unproven Sexual Harassment Claim not Enough to Preserve Anonymity
LATEST NEWS Jun 26, 2015
In BBC v Roden, the EAT held that a tribunal was wrong to take into account the risk of the public believing in the truth of unproven allegations of sexual harassment against an unfair dismissal claimant when deciding to extend an anonymity order. The public interest in open justice in such a case outweighed the[…]
Travelling Time to First Appointment is Working Time for Peripatetic Workers
LATEST NEWS Jun 17, 2015
Time spent by workers (who are not assigned to a fixed place of work) who spend travelling from home to their first customer, and from the last customer back to their homes, does count as ‘working time’ for the purposes of the Working Time Directive. In the recent case of Advocate General Bot in Federación[…]
Provisions in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 that render exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts unenforceable come into force today (26 May). Various other employment measures have also been brought into force, including an increase in the maximum financial penalty for underpayment of the national minimum wage to £20,000 per worker. The Act[…]
In Cranwell v Cullen the EAT decided that the ACAS Conciliation requirements must be met before a Tribunal can hear a claim, even if this resulted in apparent unfairness. The facts in this case were simple, the Claimant submitted her claim to an employment tribunal without previously complying with the requirement, in s.18A of the[…]
Genuinely held Religious Belief no defence to Sexual Orientation Discrimination
LATEST NEWS May 20, 2015
In an unusually political case decided this week, the Court had to consider the problem of apparently conflicting non-discrimination rights. In the “Ashers Bakery” case, the Defendents, owners of a bakery, refused to fulfil an order from the claimant, who had requested they make a cake showing a slogan to support same-sex marriage. The claimant[…]
There’s just a week to go until Election Day. Party manifestos are online for comparison and have been scrutinised via the Leaders’ Debates on TV. Elections bring the economy into sharper focus and inevitably lead to changes in employment rights and responsibilities – so which party has the right approach to ensuring that labour rights[…]
Judgment of the Employment Tribunal in Lock v British Gas (25 March 2015) The Court of Justice of the European Union is clear on the principle behind the calculation of holiday pay which is that: “The purpose of providing payment for that leave is to put the worker, during such leave, in a position which[…]