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By Sarah - Thursday, May 29th, 2008
We are moving offices tomorrow so there may be some disruption to our normal service. We will be open for business on Monday as usual when our normal blogs will commence.
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By Philip - Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
If as a Solicitor you represent yourself in Tribunal proceedings, as the cliche goes, you have a fool for a client.
If you are a part time employment tribunal judge and you represent your spouse in employment tribunal proceedings, are you sufficiently at arms’ length to act professionally and in accordance with the standards of your profession?
This case illustrates, perhaps rather graphically, the mess you can get in if you act for someone who you are close to - including a finding by an employment judge that you have acted, ahem, slightly less than professionally.
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By Sarah - Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Following news of our imminent move, we are pleased to announce that on Monday we will be welcoming two new recruits.
Jenny Gibson will be joining us as an Assistant Solicitor and Emma Kirby will be joining us as a Practice Assistant. Watch this space for what will be some exciting developments in our offering and on our website.
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By Philip - Friday, May 23rd, 2008
It’s not often an Employment Tribunal arrives at a majority decision, it’s probably even rarer in the Emplyment Appeal Tribunal.
The case reported here is a rarer than hen’s teeth example of a split EAT decision, and one involving the President.
Whether someone is an employee, worker, self employed or casual is a matter that is in the top tier of important employment law issues du jour.
In a nutshell (without doing the judgment a disservice) a long course of conduct can lead to an obligation (in this case to offer work) even if the contract may say there is no entitlement to be offered work. Another case of what happens in practice being as important as what the contract says.
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By Philip - Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
When employees are unfairly dismissed, they lose their statutory right to claim unfair dismissal for the first year in their new job (because employees must have a year’s continuous service to claim unfair dismissal). Traditionally there has been a rule of thumb that this is worth about £250.00, possibly more if an employee earns a particularly high salary or has particularly long service.
Recent Tribunal experience in this Firm has been that £250.00 is a bit on the low side. It is arguable that the ‘weeks pay’ figure used, for example, in the calculation of statutory redundancy pay (currently £330.00), would be more appropriate. Not a massive increase, but worth keeping in mind!
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By Philip - Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
A post I wrote the other day gave an example of a case where an unrepresented claimant gave the tribunal difficulties. On the one hand the Tribunal may see that the Claimant has a perfectable winnable point that he has not seen and advanced, on the other it is not the Tribunal’s job to act as an advocate for an unrepresented party. Does the Tribunal do nothing and potentially cause the claimant an injustice? Or does the Tribunal intervene and upset the employer?
One way these sorts of issues can be avoided is if unrepresented claimants avail themselves of a website that gives specific advice to unrepresented claimants, in particular how to conduct themselves at the hearing. The website can be found here
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By Philip - Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
The case reported here illustrates the difficulty Tribunals can get into when faced with two issues:
In this case the Claimant had not put forward the claim that the statutory procedure was not followed in her ET1 but perhaps picked up on the idea during the hearing, following interventions by the Tribunal. The EAT in Scotland ruled that the right to appeal against dismissal only has to be communicated, but there is no requirement under the statutory procedure for such communication to be in writing.
Most employers would be best advised to wear belts and braces and communicate the right of appeal in writing in the dismissal letter. By putting the right of appeal in writing any subsequent point about what was and was not communicated during the meeting is neutered. Neutered points bear no fruit.
The EAT also makes some interesting observations about how parties without representation should be treated during the hearing.
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By Philip - Monday, May 19th, 2008
Last week was quite a busy week for news - what with natural disasters in China and Burma, the 10p tax u turn and a speech setting out the legislative intentions of the government.
One piece of news that may have been overlooked was the news that parents of children up to the age of 16 will have the right to request flexible working.
The BERR press release is here Some factoids which may be of interest:
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By Philip - Friday, May 16th, 2008
Is an employee entitled to a redundancy payment where a suitable offer of alternative employment has been made. It’s a shame that this area of law is tricky as it involves making decisions about whether to stay with an employer or claim a redundancy payment, either decision potentially having a big financial impact on the employee.
It’s a shame also that sometimes employers cloud the waters by refusing to pay a redundancy payment and applying a rigidly objective test, rather than looking at the issue through the eyes of the particular employee.
In essence there is a two stage test was the offer “suitable,” if so was it unreasonable to turn the offer down?
In practice the issue revolves around whether the test is objective or subjective, in terms of suitability and unreasonabless.
I would urge you to read this case as it sets out the relevant case law and summarises the principles involved.
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By Sarah - Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
We are pleased to announce that we will shortly be moving to new office premises. With effect from 2nd June 2008, we will be moving to 16 Wharf Road, Stamford, PE9 2EB. Our email addresses and website address will remain unchanged. Our phone number of 0870 350 5805 and the fax on 0870 350 5806 will also remain unchanged. For those of you using the old 01780 local number this will be changing to 0870 350 5805.
Formal communciations are to be sent to all clients, former clients and suppliers in the next week or so.
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