Archive for July, 2007
By Sarah - Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
It is reported that Domino’s Pizza is in talks with unions over allegations that one of its franchisees’ based in Derby employed migrant Hungarian workers as slaves.
Eight workers were sacked and T&G Unite alleges that these workers were victims of modern day slavery. The allegations involve unlawful deductions from wages leaving the workers actually owing their employer money. The allegations are of course denied by the Derby franchise.
This does however illustrate not only the need to ensure all workers/employees are engaged on proper contractual terms but also the potentially damaging message that negative press can send out when franchisees are not kept under a close reign. We have seen a case here where the franchisee of a large global company was accused of sexual harassment of a female employee and he completely failed in his obligations to her under the statutory grievance procedure. Not a good publicity move!
Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 comments »
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By Sarah - Monday, July 30th, 2007
The EAT ruled on Friday on an application by Amicus under Regulation 22 that a penalty notice be issued following a declaration by the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC). The employer admitted a breach of Regulation 19(1) of the Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations 2004.
The EAT ruled that the breach was serious and fixed the penalty at a whopping £55,000! The maximum penalty was £75,000. Suprisingly, the employer Macmillan Publishers Ltd chose not to be represented at the hearing and may now be wishing it did. You can read the decision here, which sets out in full the reason for such a high penalty. The penalty is paid to the Secretary of State, which no doubt will help fill the public coffers.
Posted in Information and Consultation | No comments »
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By Liam - Friday, July 27th, 2007
Following on from yesterday’s post about changes in employment law, the government has followed suit with changes to the DTI. The DTI now no longer exists. It has been replaced by the concisely named “Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform”. Update your favourites and links to point to http://www.berr.gov.uk/ for information that used to come from http://www.dti.gov.uk/, although the “new” berr website has a somewhat familiar look to it.
Posted in Miscellaneous | No comments »
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By Liam - Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Parliament seems to have had a brain waive when considering what earth shattering changes can be made to employment legislation. Could it be that the much loathed Statutory Dismissal and Grievance procedures have finally been given the boot? Could TUPE finally have been made clear? No, tribunal chairman are now to be known as employment judges.
The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 has received Royal Assent last week and makes the above change. It should also make enforcement of Tribunal awards easier. Helpful, but given the number of awards that require formal enforcement, nothing to get too excited about. If you can’t sleep, have a read here.
Posted in Employment Tribunal Procedure | No comments »
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By Philip - Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
Remember the Beatles and Taxman
(if you drive a car, car;) - I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I’ll tax your feet.
Well following a long legal case ending up in the House of Lords, we do not need to add an extra line to the song,
(if your spouse draws dividends from a Limited Company)-I’ll tax that as your income
Yes I know it’s not quite up there as a lyric with John and Paul’s but thankfully the extra line in the lyric will not be necessary as the House of Lords has ruled that wives who draw dividends from a Limited Company should have those dividends taxed as their own income rather than their husband’s, where both spouses own the share capital of the limited company. Quite right too! Read about it here.
Posted in Income Tax, Miscellaneous, Tax | 1 comment »
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By Sarah - Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
The EAT ruled yesterday that Dyslexia may be a disability. In this case the policeman had medical evidence which suggested that he should be given 25% extra time in his exams for promotion, as a result of his dyslexia. This was newly diagnosed and he had not previously had problems in the numerical and literacy parts of his 15 year career with the force.
The Tribunal said that the diagnosis was not a disability, as the important thing was to look at what he could do. They concluded that his dyslexia only had a minor impact on his day-to-day activities (not substantial as required by legislation) and thus he was not disabled.
The EAT overturned this decision and said he was disabled. It is the comparison between what the individual can do (with his impairment) and what he would be able to do without the impairment, which is important in determining whether he was disabled. Taking 25% longer to complete his exams meant he was at a substantial disadvantage compared to his position if he did not have dyslexia. You can read the full decision here.
Posted in Disability Discrimination | No comments »
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By Sarah - Monday, July 23rd, 2007
Once again Britain has been deluged by flood waters. You will recall only weeks ago we blogged on disaster recovery and the wisdom of having a plan in place. See the previous blog here. Well, these last few days, nature has been testing employers to see whether they have formulated their plans.
Here at PJH Law we were not immune when we sprung a leak in our roof, which is in our Grade II listed building. Thankfully it was not too serious and nothing a few buckets as a temporary measure did not fix. However, we have a disaster plan should we ever have the misfortune to need to use it. Today we see that the Employment Appeals Tribunal is indeed shut in London due to water damage. There is a telephone number on the website so presumably they have some sort of disaster recovery plan.
We have been (to date) extremely lucky here with the weather and we spare a thought for the business counterparts in areas of the country who cannot operate (except through disaster recovery plans) and for employers whose staff are stranded and unable to attend work. Another important reminder for us all to review our disaster recovery plans.
Posted in Miscellaneous | No comments »
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By Sarah - Friday, July 20th, 2007
Today Tanya, the firm’s Administrative Assistant, will be leaving for pastures new. She has been job sharing with Linda, Practice Manager, whilst doing a AAT Course in Accounting at a local College in the mornings. She has now secured a position at a local accountants pursuing her chosen career. So it is goodbye (do-svidanya) to Tanya and we all wish her well in her future career.
Many of you may remember the smiling newcomer to the firm, many months ago who is unrecognisable to the Tanya we see today. Tanya always has a smile on her face, which will be sorely missed by the team.
So watch this space for news on a new face at PJH Law who will be joining the team in September.
Posted in PJH Law News | No comments »
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By Philip - Thursday, July 19th, 2007
For those of you who have been away for the last few days, (walking on the moon, being an englishman in new york or dreaming with blue turtles perhaps,) you may have missed the news that the Employment Tribunal has made an award in the sex discrimination case involving Mr and Mrs Sting.
Anyway Sting will not need to catch every breath he takes as the award was loose change in relative terms, being just shy of £25k. My reading of the press reports was that the award would have been higher had the Claimant’s solicitors asked for aggravated damages and costs, which is food for thought! The matter is going to appeal so maybe the EAT will allow this ex police-man to use his get out of jail card. (Fancy a fellow band member calling you a petulant pansy, I can see a sexual orientation claim there!)
Posted in Employment Tribunal Procedure, Sex/Race Discrimination, Wrongful Dismissal | 1 comment »
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By Liam - Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
The Government has now published its draft legislative programme (see chapter 5) which outlines new statutes that are likely to be put before parliament in the near future. Fans of the Statutory Grievance Procedure and Statutory Dismissal Procedure will be disappointed as these are likely to be repealed. The draft programme does not say with what they will be replaced, but this has been the subject of consultation which closed in June (http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page38508.html) so the outcome of the consultation should be published soon.
There will also be some changes to the enforcement regime for the National Minimum Wage and for the Regulation of Employment Agencies.
Posted in Government Publications, Miscellaneous, National Minimum Wage, Statutory Procedures | 1 comment »
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