Personnel FILE - July 2008
In House News
...Natalie Roach Makes Partner
Brethertons is delighted to announce the expansion of the firm’s senior team with Natalie Roach being admitted to the firm’s partnership.
Natalie Roach joined Brethertons’ Team Commercial in May 2006 as an employment solicitor having worked at both Henmans in Oxford and Taylor Walton in Luton. Since her arrival, Natalie has successfully grown the firm’s Employment Team by over 300%, which is now recognised by the Legal 500 legal directory as having an expanding team, one of the Top 20 in the region.
Natalie and her team of employment specialists work for employers and HR teams in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire providing the full range of employment legal services for businesses and individuals.
Natalie’s appointment brings the partner total in Brethertons to nine. Brethertons has expanded considerably over the past three years across its five office locations in Banbury and Rugby, and will continue to increase in size this year to accommodate 170 employees and 90 solicitor/fee-earners.
Team Commercial partner, Brian Auld, said of Natalie’s appointment:
“Natalie is a great asset to Brethertons. Very few people know that last year only two employment tribunal ‘maximum costs orders’ were made in the UK, and Natalie secured one of them for her client which meant a rarely-seen £10,000-worth of costs were awarded to them. This result is indicative of the way in which Natalie approaches employment law and the way in which she exceeds expectations at every level.”
CIPD members keeping an eye on Big Brother!
Brethertons Employment Team wowed over 100 members of the CIPD this month with a slightly unusual presentation. Every year Brethertons are invited to present to this prestigious group of HR director, managers and students on various employment law topics. This year the themes of TUPE transfers and harassment in the workplace were brought alive with a Big Brother flavour, as both claimants and defendants sat in the diary room chair to air their problems to the audience and receive guidance from Big Brother. The evening was rounded off by a run down of the top ten employment legislation changes with a bottle of champagne up for grabs.
Natalie Roach the Head of Team Employment said “We are pleased and proud to be asked to present to CIPD every year and hope that our unusual and fun delivery of the material helped the delegates to remember important legal realities.”
Contract Review Seminar and Webinar
Continuing their packed seminar schedule of this summer, Team Employment presented to the Banbury Business Breakfast Club in June. Over 80 business people attended the brand new Holiday Inn in Banbury to hear the team talk about Contracts of Employment and what they must contain and what we recommend they should contain. The team followed this up with a webinar with a similar content.
If you were unable to attend these events but are interested in making sure that your employment contracts are at least compliant with section one of the Employment Rights Act contact us for a link to our webinar which you can watch free of charge.
ACAS Consults on Draft Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance
The Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004, which require employers and employees to operate statutory minimum disciplinary, dismissal and grievance procedures, were intended to give those involved the chance to settle complaints without recourse to litigation. However, the anticipated reduction in the number of tribunal claims did not happen and the procedures have been widely criticised for being poorly drafted and overly complex. An independent review of the options for simplifying and improving all aspects of employment dispute resolution recommended that the statutory dispute resolution procedures be repealed and replaced with non-prescriptive guidelines on grievances, discipline and dismissal.
To this end, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has published for consultation a revised Code of Practice providing practical guidance for employers, employees and their representatives. This sets out basic principles for handling disciplinary and grievance situations in the workplace. Failing to follow the Code will not, in itself, make a person or organisation liable to proceedings but employment tribunals will have the power to adjust by up to 25 per cent any awards made in relevant cases for unreasonable failure to comply with the Code.
The Government plans to introduce the changes in workplace dispute resolution procedures in April 2009 and it is intended that the revised ACAS Code will come into effect at the same time.
The draft Code of Practice can be found at http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=880&p=0. The consultation closes on 25 July 2008.
First Criminal Prosecution for failure to pay National Minimum Wage
The owners of a butcher’s shop in Yorkshire have become the first employers in the country to be convicted of deliberately not paying staff the national minimum wage. The owners were ordered to pay a combined amount of over £10,000 in compensation to two former employees, plus costs.
The pair, who pleaded guilty at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court, had attempted to conceal their underpayments. The court found that they had not kept adequate records of their employees’ pay and then falsified these in an attempt to convince HM Revenue and Customs compliance officers that they had been paying the correct amounts. As a result of their actions they were found guilty of various offences under S.31 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.
This demonstrates just how seriously failure to pay your employees the national minimum wage will be taken.
Time to Train?
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) issued a consultation paper in June on the proposed right to request time off for training which followed on from the announcement by the Prime Minister in May.
The right to request time to train would work by giving employees a legal right to ask their employer to give them time away from their mainstream duties to undertake relevant training. The training should be such that it helps improve business performance and productivity. The employers would be required to seriously consider any such request but can deny the request for a good business reason. The new right would closely follow the legal model of the current right to request flexible working. It is intended to apply only to employees who have been working with that employer for six months. The DIUS estimate this will help up to 22 million employees in England, so we eagerly await the outcome of the consultation process.
The Time to Train consultation is open to all employers and employees in England and closes on 10 September 2008.
Hearing Scheduled on Retirement Age Challenge
The UK Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, which came into force on 1 October 2006, make all retirement ages under 65 illegal unless objectively justified.
Heyday, an organisation backed by Age Concern to support people approaching or in early retirement, has challenged the Government over the inclusion of the mandatory retirement age on the grounds that this means that the Regulations do not fully implement the EU Equal Treatment Directive. The organisation wants the legislation amended to give workers over 65 the same protection from discrimination as younger workers. In order to settle this issue, the matter was referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
A hearing is due to be held before one of the ECJ’s Advocate Generals in July 2008. A written submission on the merits of Heyday’s case and the legality of the UK Government’s transposition of the EU Directive will then be submitted to the ECJ and it is possible that the Court will come to its decision before the end of the year.
Says Natalie Roach “There are many workers who wish to continue working after the age of 65, so the ECJ’s ruling on the Heyday organisation’s challenge to the age discrimination legislation, as implemented in the UK, is awaited with interest.”
Employee Wins Religious Discrimination Claim
Employees are protected under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 from discrimination by reason of any religion, religious or philosophical belief. There is an exception where belonging to a particular religion or having a particular religious belief is a genuine and determining occupational requirement for a post and it is proportionate to apply the requirement in the particular case.
An employee who worked for a Christian charity recently won his claim of constructive dismissal and discrimination on grounds of religion or belief.
The Employment Tribunal (ET) heard that the charity, Prospects, which receives public money for its work with people with learning disabilities, had previously employed a number of non-Christian staff and volunteers. In 2004, it began recruiting only those who were practising Christians and informed existing staff members who were non-Christians that they would no longer be eligible for promotion. Prospects claimed that it was protected by the genuine occupational requirement exception but the ET judged that its actions constituted discrimination under the Regulations.
The legal costs of the claimant in this case were paid by the British Humanist Association (BHA). Executive Director of the BHA, Hanne Stinson, commented that the outcome would “have far-reaching repercussions for religious employers, as faith-based organisations will have to be much more stringent when they wish to discriminate on grounds of religion or belief in employment and attach a ‘Genuine Occupational Requirement’ to their jobs.”
Right to Request Flexible Working to be Extended
Whilst anyone can ask their employer for more flexible working arrangements, at the moment only parents and others (such as guardians) who are responsible for looking after children under the age of six years (or 18 years if the child is disabled) and those with caring responsibilities for adult relatives have the legal right to request to work flexible hours, provided they have worked for their employer for 26 weeks continuously before the application is made. The employer is obliged to take the request seriously.
The Government has now announced a proposed extension of this right to those with children up to age 16, as recommended in an independent review carried out by Imelda Walsh, the HR Director of Sainsbury’s. This will mean that an extra 4.5 million parents in Britain will gain the right to request flexible working. The Government will now consult on implementing the proposals.
Where the legal right to request flexible working exists, an employer must consider a request seriously and must follow a set procedure and timetable. An employer can only refuse such a request if they can demonstrate a clear business reason for doing so.
The review document can be found at http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file46092.pdf.
2008 Webinar Programme
All webinars (seminars over the web)commence at 12.30pm, a convenient time to get your team together for an hours training over the lunch hour.
You need no special equipment other than a telephone with a hands free facility and a computer with an internet connection. You will hear the speakers through your telephone and see interactive slides/graphics on your PC as the speaker makes the presentation. Copies of the speakers handouts/slides will be emailed in advance of the presentation. Please visit our events page at www.brethertons.co.uk and complete the booking form below to reserve your link.
6th August 2008: Employment Law for Managers
This webinar covers all areas of employment law for managers, with a particular focus on the following:
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Why do you want to employ staff at all?
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Subcontractors that are really employees
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Foreign workers – the Rules and Regulations
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Age Discrimination
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Disability Discrimination
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Hiring and Firing- getting it right
12.30pm - 11th September: Terms And Conditions In A Nutshell
Why you should have them and how you should use them.
All business should have Terms and Conditions of Trading, as failure to do so could mean that it is left to the Court to decide on what terms businesses have entered into contracts. Who in there right mind will want a Judge deciding the terms on which you should do business? This Webinar will include:-
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Why have them?
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The principal clauses to use
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The clauses to avoid
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How to use T&C’s to your advantage
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How to win the battle of the forms
Click here to download the booking form for the Terms and Conditions webinar.
12.30pm - 13th November: Small Claims Court Procedures In A Nutshell
How to maximise your chances of successfully recovering your cash if you have to go to a court hearing.
If your debts remain unpaid you may find yourself attending a hearing before a District Judge in the Small Claims Court. This Webinar will cover the following subjects:-
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How to avoid bad debts in the first place
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Smalls County Court proceedings
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Preparation of cases
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Conducts at hearings
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Enforcement proceedings and recovering expenses
Click here to download the booking form for the Small Claims Court Procedures In A Nutshell
12.30pm – 4th December: Effective Letter Writing
How to write letters which will grab a debtors attention.
If your debts remain unpaid you may find yourself attending a hearing before a District Judge in the Small Claims Court. This Webinar will cover the following subjects:
Click here to download the booking form for the Effective Letter Writing Webinar
