Statutory Instrument – 22/01/2010
The main effect of these draft regulations is to implement the government’s previously announced intention to give new mothers the right to transfer the second 6 months of their 12 months maternity leave entitlement to the father.
Statutory Maternity Pay (£123.06 per week, rising to £124.88 in April 2010, payable for 9 months in [...]

EAT – 18/01/2010
The right to statutory leave is not “inalienable”. Although an employer must not act unreasonably or capriciously so as to deny any lawful requests for leave, it is possible that contractual provisions (such as notice periods for applying for leave) may operate to prevent an employee taking all his leave before a leave [...]

Sunday Telegraph – 10/01/2010
The Sunday Telegraph reports that John Bowers QC, the eminent employment law silk, has said in a formal opinion that the Equality Bill “could make it unlawful for a church to require a priest or minister to be male, celibate and unmarried, or not in a civil partnership”.
The Sunday Telegraph article goes [...]

Copyright acknowledged Daily Mail – 11/01/2010
Although this Daily Mail article does not mention it, the Heyday case is an essential backdrop to this interview with Harriet Harman. Ms Harman has told the Daily Mail that the government intends to recommend that the age 65 default retirement age should not be raised to 70 or 75 [...]

Financial Times – 28/12/2009
A highly paid London-based German banker, Achim Beck, has successfully brought a claim for age discrimination against his former employer, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, after he was made redundant.
An employment tribunal ruled that Mr Beck had been the victim of a “sham” redundancy process with the aim of replacing him [...]

Joint Committee on Human Rights – 15/12/2009
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has been examining the Process for appointments to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.  As part of that process it has been asking why the Commission is paying Neil Kingham, its interim chief executive, £1,000 per day.
This follows previous evidence sessions with [...]

BBC – 15/12/2009
British Airways PLC says it is seeking a court injunction to stop the planned strike by cabin staff after the Unite union ignored a 2 p.m. deadline to call off the proposed 12-day strike.  The strike is due to take place over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
BA says it has written to the Unite union [...]

Veakins v Keir Islington Ltd – conduct must be “oppressive and unacceptable” to amount to “harassment” under 1997 Act
Court of Appeal – 02/12/2009
In a claim under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (which will be rare in matters concerning the workplace) the court must focus primarily on the requirement that the conduct complained of be “oppressive and [...]

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – 02/12/2009
Following revelations of the blacklisting of construction workers, the government has announced that it will introduce new rules banning the practice of blacklisting workers for their trade union membership or activities.
This announcement was made together with the publication of a government response to a consultation on new regulations [...]

Law Society Gazette – 19/11/2009
This article in the Law Society Gazette refers to the BIS July 2009 consultation on Employment Tribunal claims and the Public Interest Disclosure Act”.
The article reports the views of the Employment Lawyers Association. The main point is a fear that empowering the employment tribunal service to forward details of claims involving PIDA allegations to the [...]