Archive for October, 2011
October 31, 2011
As most of you will know from the news, Chancellor George Osborne announced some headline reforms on the law of unfair dismissal and the Employment Tribunal system at the recent Conservative Party Conference. The two significant changes announced were the increase in the qualifying period of employment required to bring an unfair dismissal claim from one year to two years with effect from April 2012, and the introduction of fees for claimants wanting to bring claims in the Employment Tribunal. Read more
October 31, 2011
This article originally appeared in People Management Online.
References are a notoriously tricky area – if the comments are too positive, they risk claims from future employers, and if they are too negative, they risk claims from ex-employees. This is one reason why many employers have a policy of sticking to the bare minimum of information and giving only dates of employment and job title. However, a recent case may provide a glimmer of hope for those who want to give more information. Read more
October 31, 2011
The question of who is an employee is one of the most fundamental issues in employment law. Most employment rights, such as the right to minimum notice, the right to the National Minimum Wage, the right to claim unfair dismissal and the right to redundancy pay all require employment status. It is therefore important for both companies and workers to understand their status at the outset of the relationship. The Employment Rights Act has a very circular definition of who is an employee – defining an employee as a person who works under a contract of employment. Many years ago in the Court of Appeal legendary judge Lord Denning said that he would recognise an employee when he saw one, but he didn’t give us much guidance on how this should be done! Read more
October 31, 2011
Question: We have an employee who is 64. About a year or so ago she was talking about retiring. She never gave us a definite date, and since then she seems to have stopped mentioning it. She is in a key role and we want to make succession plans, but we aren’t sure how much we can talk to her about what she wants to do. We know that we can’t force her to retire now that the law has changed – and to be honest, she is still a valued employee and we don’t want her to go, but we realise that she will eventually retire. We just want to try and manage the situation. How much can we talk to her about her retirement plans? Read more
October 31, 2011
As social media such as Twitter and Facebook are becoming increasingly important in many people’s lives, it is not surprising that we are seeing an increase in employment cases involving employees’ actions on social media. Two recent Employment Tribunal decisions illustrate the importance of having a social media policy in place – but they also remind us that social media hasn’t changed the basic principles that employers must always bear in mind. Read more