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Adoption - A Woman's Rights
Employers are reminded that women who are planning to adopt a child have similar rights as regards protection from unfavourable treatment as employees who are pregnant. This was illustrated by a landmark decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET). Anna... -
Age Discrimination Checklist
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 aim to achieve equal treatment in employment and vocational training to eradicate discrimination on the grounds of age. Under the Regulations it is unlawful to make employment decisions based on a... -
Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act
In 2007, the former Equal Opportunities Commission brought judicial review proceedings against the Government regarding some of the provisions of the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 , which made amendments to the Sex... -
Disability Discrimination - Normal Day-to-Day Activities
For the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), a person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their normal day-to-day activities. In Chief Constable of... -
Driving on Company Business
Research by the Health and Safety Executive shows that 20 people are killed and 250 are seriously injured each week in traffic accidents involving someone driving for business reasons. The threat of employers being prosecuted for road accidents involving... -
Employer Responsible for Work-Related Suicide
Employees, or their dependants, are entitled to claim damages for injury caused by a workplace accident if: • there was a duty of care owed to the injured person; • that duty was not performed; and • it was reasonably foreseeable that harm... -
Equal Treatment for Agency Workers - Later Not Sooner
After many failed attempts over the last six years by the EU Council of Ministers to agree on proposals to improve the employment rights of agency workers, the European Parliament finally adopted the Agency Workers Directive on 19 November 2008. Member... -
Expired Disciplinary Warnings and Unfair Dismissal
The Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET), upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), that an employee was unfairly dismissed because his employer had taken account of an expired disciplinary warning when deciding to... -
Faulty Work Boots - Employer Not Liable for Employee's Frostbite
The House of Lords ruled, in the case of Fytche v Wincanton Logistics , that an employer’s absolute obligation to maintain or repair protective equipment, under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, does not extend to a situation... -
Graduate Recruitment
Most businesses would like to benefit from an influx of talent, enthusiasm and fresh ideas. The challenge is to achieve it at an acceptable cost. One option is to employ a recent graduate. In the past, most graduate recruitment was undertaken by large... -
Guidance for Employers of Teleworkers
Nowadays, many people work away from the traditional office environment through the use of modern technology. The Government estimates that there are now more than two million ‘teleworkers’ in the UK who do some work from home, an increase of 65... -
Immigration - A Brief Guide to the Points-Based System
The Points-Based Immigration System (PBS) has replaced the previous routes to work and study in the UK for migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. In addition, the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 , passed on 21... -
In Brief - Advice on Occupational Asthma
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that each year between 1,500 and 3,000 people in Great Britain develop occupational asthma. The number rises to 7,000 cases a year if asthma made worse by work is taken into account. The cost to society is... -
In Brief - Data Protection
The Office of the Information Commissioner has published a consolidated version of the guidance on data protection issues in employment. This brings together the four existing guides on recruitment and selection, employee records, monitoring at work and... -
In Brief - Guidance on Cancer and Working
Changes introduced in December 2005 extended protection under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to those diagnosed with progressive forms of cancer. The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, together with the Working with Cancer group and the... -
In Brief - Working at Height Regulations
Falls from height are the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of serious injury. In order to help prevent accidents of this type, revised Regulations came into force on 6 April 2005. The Work at Height Regulations (WAHR) 2005... -
In Brief: ACAS E-learning Guides
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) now has ten electronic learning guides available on its website. The topics are: • bullying and harassment; • managing absence in the workplace; • handling redundancy; •... -
In Brief: ACAS Guidance on Holiday and Holiday Pay
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has useful guidance for employers puzzling over staff holiday pay entitlements. These clarify the law in a useful question-and-answer format. Subjects covered include the entitlement of agency... -
In Brief: Assessment of Repetitive Tasks Tool
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the most common occupational illness in Britain. They include problems such as low back pain, joint injuries and repetitive strain injuries of various sorts, and affect more than 500,000 people every year. They are often... -
Informing and Consulting Employees
The EU Information and Consultation Directive 2002 establishes minimum requirements for consulting and informing employees on a wide variety of subjects. The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 implement the Directive in the UK. ... -
Night Sleeper Entitled to National Minimum Wage
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) confirmed ( Burrow Down Support Services Ltd. v Rossiter ) that a night worker who was required to be available to deal with security issues at his employer’s premises, but who could sleep for much of his shift on... -
Pregnant Women and Risk Assessments
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require all employers to carry out an assessment of workplace risks that could harm employees and to do whatever is ‘reasonably practicable’ to control these risks. In particular,... -
Preventing Occupational Deafness
The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 introduced tighter controls on exposure to noise levels in the workplace, to protect workers from damage to their hearing. The noise level at which workers are required to have hearing protection available is... -
Protecting Business Interests
When an employee leaves to go to work for another organisation, their employer may wish to have in place safeguards to protect sensitive information relating to the business, to prevent it from falling into the hands of a competitor. One possible way of... -
Race Discrimination and the Burden of Proof
Recent case law has led to confusion as to whether Section 54A of the Race Relations Act 1976 applies to direct discrimination on the grounds of someone’s colour. In Okonu v G4S Security Services (UK) Ltd. , the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT)...
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