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 with someone younger. Although he had been made redundant along with several members of his derivatives marketing team, [...]

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 the Chair of the EHRC, Trevor Phillips OBE, and with former EHRC Commissioners, Professor Kay Hampton, Professor Francesca [...]

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 outlining “irregularities” in its ballot of workers, which it says makes the vote invalid. Unite issued a press [...]

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 unacceptable” (as against merely “unattractive, unreasonable or regrettable”), albeit that it should also bear in mind the authority [...]

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 to prevent blacklisting. The new regulations, if they are implemented, will: make it unlawful for organisations to refuse [...]