There are a number of employment law changes which came into effect on the 6th April 2014. A summary of these changes is set out below: Acas conciliation The Acas early conciliation procedure will be introduced. Discrimination questionnaires Section 138 of the Equality Act 2010 (which deals with discrimination questionnaires) will be repealed. Employment […]
Tag: employment solicitor oundle
Surrogacy and maternity leave
Further to my earlier posts, we now have a ruling from the European Court of Justice on this issue. The ECJ has held that a commissioning mother (who receives a child via a surrogacy) does not have the right to maternity leave under the Pregnant Workers Directive. The aim of the Directive is to protect […]
Pre-claim conciliation through ACAS
On 6th April 2014, compulsory early conciliation arrives. The Regulations have now been published and when I have got to grip with the detail and mechanics I will provide a more detailed blog post about the system. As always the devil is in the detail and there is much detail. In the meantime, so you […]
New limits on week’s pay and compensatory awards
This year there is a move away from the annual change to a week’s pay and the maximum compensatory award which has always traditionally taken place in February for the last few years. Instead this year there will be an increase on 6th April 2014. The Employment Rights (Increase to Limits) Order 2014 reflects an […]
Sunday working
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal from an employee who was Christian and claimed indirect discrimination on the grounds of religious belief by being required to work Sundays. The requirement was found to be potentially discriminatory but on this occasion the employer could justify the requirement to work on Sundays. The employer ran […]
TUPE 2014
The Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 have now been laid before Parliament and as previously reported will come into force on 31 January 2014. The final form of the regulations has a couple of key changes from the draft regulations which were published on 31 October 2013. These changes […]
Zero hours consultation launched
Following my blog last year, BIS have now launched the consultation on zero-hours contracts. Following huge media interest last year the Government repeatedly promised the consultation which was launched on 19th December 2013. The Government wants to maximise the opportunities of zero-hours contracts but minimise the abuse and set out core standards that protect individuals. […]
Judicial review
Whilst many Claimant solicitors await the outcome of the judicial review into the introduction of Tribunal fees, the High Court is to receive another challenge. A London employment firm is seeking to challenge the new 52 week limit on unfair dismissal awards which came into force also on 29th July 2013 under the Unfair Dismissal (Variation […]
Out of hours conduct
It is always a fine line between conduct which occurs out of work and the ability to discipline or dismiss for it. Some examples are more clear cut than others. It is not limited to conduct in the course of employment provided it affects the employee or could be likely to affect the employee when he […]
When zero hours is not zero hours
There has been much media coverage over the past few months about zero hours contracts. Love them or hate them, they can be very valuable in many industries to flex up and down to demand. The problem with them is that, like most good ideas, they are often misused. Employers often use a zero hour […]