You know that there is something seriously amiss with employment relations in the UK when Acas’ new Guidance on settlement agreements has to run to 83 pages. This is of course on top of its Code of Practice which contains another 11. So that is close to 100 pages dedicated essentially to how to agree … Continue Reading
Part of the Government’s proposals “to reduce the burdens on business” (i.e. the cost to the Government of running the Employment Tribunal system) is Early Conciliation (EC). This requires prospective claimants to contact Acas and be talked through the conciliation process before they can bring a Tribunal claim. When it is launched next year, there … Continue Reading
Hats off for a striking own-goal scored by Premiership Footballer Papiss Cisse in his dispute with Newcastle United FC (see our post of 15 July – Football Strip Adds Interest to Debate). To re-cap, Cisse has refused to wear Newcastle’s usual strip because the activities of its shirt sponsor, Wonga, offend Sharia and Islamic principles … Continue Reading
Another Christian Bed & Breakfast case came out last week, containing some faintly unsettling insight from the Court of Appeal into the issue of balancing rights to manifest one’s religion against rights not to be discriminated against. Black & Morgan – v – Wilkinson reached the right and usual conclusion, i.e. that the refusal of … Continue Reading
So what do you do with a Premiership footballer who refuses to wear his club’s strip because he has religious objections to the sponsor plastered across the front? Treat it as a silly diva tantrum or as a legitimate manifestation of his beliefs? Muslim Papiss Cissé has refused to wear Newcastle United’s new strip following … Continue Reading
I was very pleased to receive one of this blog’s first printable comments on our Penguin/Sombrero piece last week. It is always reassuring to know that there are real readers out there! Previous comments have included one ferociously racist in nature and a series of gently commendatory remarks which turned out to be spam for … Continue Reading
HereIsTheCitynews.com (HITCN) recently ran a piece on left-field recruitment interview questions, including the one in the title, “What kitchen utensil would you be?”, and the potentially lethal “On a scale from 1 to 10, rate me as an interviewer”. Would you seriously want to tell the Employment Tribunal that your disputed selection decision between man … Continue Reading
So is it age discrimination to called a teenage employee a “teenager”? All a question of context, the Employment Tribunal decided in Roberts –v- Cash Zone (Camberley) Limited last month, a ruling which also sheds some side-light on the use of other potentially discriminatory terms in the workplace. Ms Roberts was 18 when dismissed by … Continue Reading
“Using a recruitment agency which specialises in the supply of attractive staff could be discriminatory”, warn lawyers. Of course they do. “Lookist” internet dating site beautifulpeople.com is launching a recruitment agency as a spin-off, according to the Telegraph online this week. Employers wanting to fish in this particular pool, professionally-speaking, can advertise on the beautifulpeople … Continue Reading
Those who thought that the debate about where to draw the line in accommodating religious beliefs at work had been pretty much ended by the Equalities & Human Rights Commission’s Guidance on Religion and Belief in the Workforce (see our post of 15 February) should think again. The Telegraph online reported last week that the … Continue Reading
Mixed news on the discrimination front last with what should be the last knockings of Seldon v Clarkson Wright & Jakes, the age claim brought by a partner compulsorily retired from a firm of solicitors. The Employment Tribunal first ruled on this one in late 2007. In the interim it has been up to the … Continue Reading
Reports on the BBC News On-Line last week suggest another “return to old fashioned values”, the Government’s stock response when all else fails. This time it is in relation to teaching English grammar at primary school, the first time in a while that such focus has been placed on this foundation of the language at … Continue Reading
Are you the person responsible for compliance with the UK’s Bribery Act 2010 in your office? If so, you might not want to read this. Just step away from your screen and whistle a happy tune, and that way you will never see the results of the annual fraud survey published by Ernst & Young … Continue Reading
Back in October we suggested that the Government’s employee shareholder status proposal was a clear case of attaching too much credibility to its own publicity, and was destined to fail – ill thought-out, with insufficient consideration given to how it would actually work in practice, as opposed to party political conference cosmetics. Since then, much … Continue Reading
Hold the front page! Employees may face alcohol testing at work shock horror, etc., according to Tuesday’s Metro. Apparently a new finger-touch testing device is now ready for launch, which can give a red or green light for alcohol in the blood stream in just 10 seconds, allowing for the “processing” of up to 300 … Continue Reading
In 2013, Squire Sanders will be presenting a series of webinars focusing on restrictive covenants around the globe. These webinars will provide participants with an understanding of the basic principles of restrictive covenants in different jurisdictions. On 16 May 2013 at 2pm BST (9am EDT, 3pm CET, 9pm WST) our featured countries are Poland, Czech … Continue Reading
“Druids, vegans and green activists should be given special treatment at work, according to “lunatic” advice from the Equalities Watchdog”. Guess the newspaper? Under the blaring headline “What an insult to Christians!”, the Daily Mail swaggered back into the workplace arena earlier this week with a searing and almost wholly misleading indictment of the Equalities … Continue Reading
An employer retaliating against the maker of a race discrimination complaint will be guilty of victimisation unless the complaint is untrue and made in bad faith. But what if the complaint is made negligently? Is that bad faith? A good example of a negligent race discrimination allegation appeared in last week’s London Evening Standard concerning … Continue Reading
Some more sensible guidance this week from the people who brought you Heafield –v- The Times, this time in connection with the use of covert tape recordings in evidence in the Employment Tribunal. Ms Vaughan alleged discrimination against London Borough of Lewisham and assorted others. She claimed that she had 39 hours of covertly tape-recorded … Continue Reading
Many contracts for the provision of services include a term allowing the customer to require the supplier to remove from its premises or its account any person employed by the supplier whom the customer no longer likes the look of. Often that clause imposes no obligation on the customer to provide (let along prove) the … Continue Reading
Often the whole point of using agency workers is the flexibility which they give to the end-user to hire for short periods, for specific tasks, for particular expertise or simply to mislead HQ about FTE headcounts. They are “employees without tears”, to some extent at least. That principle began to come unstuck through the Agency … Continue Reading
I always think of burn-out as looking like Don McCullin’s famous Vietnam War shot of a shell-shocked Marine, a man who has looked over the edge into Hell and will never be entirely whole again. Do you recognise that 1,000 yard stare in any of your employees? Or any of the other signs that your … Continue Reading
Widely reported at the end of last week was a growing row at City University in London, following its decision to lock a room previously used for Friday prayers by Muslim students. Are there circumstances when a religious accommodation of that sort can safely be removed by an employer? The University says that the lock-out … Continue Reading
Though the Pope may now have stepped down on health grounds, his name lives on in some surprising quarters, most recently the Employment Appeal Tribunal. During the Pope’s visit to the UK in 2010, The Times newspaper was preparing a story about allegations that he had protected a paedophile priest. A Times editor, Mr Wilson, … Continue Reading
