Employment and Trade Union Law
Sometime one reads an employment tribunal judgment and you can do little else than think whether the employment judge was imbibing something untoward when they made their decision since it is, to put it diplomatically, batshit crazy. That comment is, of course, made in jest but reading of the employment judge's decision in Gordon v … Continue reading Waiving a breach?
When deciding what compensation a successful claimant can receive in an employment tribunal section 207A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidated Act 1992 allows for compensation to be increased (or decreased) by up to 25% if a party has failed to follow a Code of Practice issued by ACAS which applies in the … Continue reading ACAS uplifts in automatically unfair dismissals
A relatively recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision (Asda v Raymond) considers whether in order to conduct a reasonable investigation an employer should not only investigate what happened but also whether there are underlying causes for the conduct (why they happened). The claimant in the case was a lorry driver and parked his lorry in a … Continue reading Pissing in the wind
It is not often there is an appeal judgement of genuine assistance to employees, but the EAT's decision last year in Essop v Home Office is one such case in which my union, PCS, assisted the claimants in appealing. The background is that the Respondent had a Provision, Criterion or Practice that an employee wishing … Continue reading Tell Me the Reason Why
If a person has type 2 Diabetes are they necessarily disabled under the Equality Act 2010? This was the question considered by the Employment Appeals Tribunal in Metroline Travel Ltd v Stoute [2015] UKEAT 0302_14_2601. The claimant had type 2 diabetes but was not on medication for this but did control his condition by controlling … Continue reading Is Diabetes Necessarily a Disability?
Rule 11(1) of the Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 requires that "The Tribunal shall reject a claim if it is not accompanied by a Tribunal fee or a remission application." In other words, since the since the introduction of employment tribunal fees if a claim is made but that claim is … Continue reading A Box Ticking Exercise
At the beginning of the month I posted What Will the Papers Say?, a piece on the High Court' s decision in Williams v Leeds United Football Club [2015] EWHC 376 (QB). Briefly, the claimant, then a Director for Leeds Utd FC, had sent pornographic images using the football club's IT to three people: Dennis Wise, … Continue reading Affirming Gross Misconduct
Claims under sections 19 and 20 of the Equality Act 2010 require that a provision, criterion or practice place (or in s.19 would place if applied) an individual with a protected characteristic at a substantial (in the case of section 20) or a particular (in the case of section 19) disadvantage. In Edie & 15 … Continue reading Changes of Contract and the Equality Act
A scenario: Sarah, who is an employee, suspects that the company's finance officer is 'cooking the books' by skimming company funds into his personal accounts having come across a printed document left on the printer in the office. Concerned about this Sarah reports her concerns to the company's HR director and explains that she thinks … Continue reading Whistleblowing: not just and equitable
PCS has today announced that its challenge of the National Audit Offices decision to unilaterally change terms and conditions of service from its employees has been successful: On 15 December, PCS won the important case against the NAO's decision to reduce the contractual sick pay and leave of its existing staff. This dispute started in … Continue reading PCS Union win court victory on changes to terms and conditions
Imagine you work in a company with two employees, both Indian, and an employer who is also Indian. You come from the Dalit caste in the caste system, meanwhile your employer and a fellow employee performing the same role as both share a higher caste. You notice that despite having exactly the same job as … Continue reading Race and Caste Discrimination
In 2013 the Employment Appeal Tribunal delivered its important judgement on trade union rights in Toal v GB Oils. The case was in the interpretation of the right of a worker to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance meeting by a trade union representative of their choosing. Section 10(2) of the Employment Relations Act … Continue reading ACAS Code of Practice after Toal v GB Oils
I have just been made aware of an interesting first tier tribunal decision that is becoming more and more of an issue for union members who are agency workers on long term contracts. Paragraph 13 of the Agency Worker Regulations 2010 states that 13.—(1) An agency worker has during an assignment the right to be … Continue reading Civil Service Recruitment and Agency Worker Regulations
Back in 2013 the EAT issued the the important decision in Brito-babapulle v Ealing Hospital NHS Trust [2013] UKEAT 0358_12_1406 which that found that the Employment Tribunal's finding that "[o]nce gross misconduct is found, dismissal must always fall within the range of reasonable responses" was an error of law. Specifically, "the Tribunal misdirected itself as … Continue reading Brito-Babapulle, Mark II
The central case dealing with the fairness of conduct dismissals is undoubtedly British Home Stores Ltd v Burchell [1978] UKEAT 108_78_2007. It was this case that is the source of the "Burchell Test", here it is in the judgement itself: What the tribunal has to decide every time is, broadly expressed, whether the employer who … Continue reading Dismissal and Culpability
UPDATE - 07 Feb Since the last post the following articles have been posted: Howie Fuller (the now ex-PCS member) writes about the leak of the NEC memo. Rob Williams writes on the Socialist Party's website that PCS had "no option but to implement emergency measures to ensure the ongoing viability of the union." Worker's … Continue reading PCS Elections: Round Up
The RMT Union has today reported on discussions it held today with the administrators of City Link, which on Christmas Day announced the redundancy of over 2,500 jobs with workers losing their jobs on New Years Eve, The union reports that at the meeting the union was told that: * the company were working with … Continue reading City Link Redundancies: An Unfair Dismissal?
