The ACAS Code of Practice (COP1) is said to explicitly not apply to redundancy dismissals. Two recent cases have extended the circumstances in which the Code does not apply to include ill-health and some other substantial reason dismissals. The case of Holmes v Qinetiq Ltd [2015] (case reference UKEAT/0206/15/) found that the Code does not […]
Tag: employment solicitor wellingborough
Employment courts online?
One of the current reforms being considered is the use of courts online including the potential for employment courts online. Lord Justice Briggs has recently been carrying out a review of civil courts to look where efficiencies can be made. The report is due out before the end of the year but will be looking […]
New ACAS Equality Guides
ACAS has published three new guides on equality which are detailed and set out the best practices for businesses to follow in the areas equality. The three guides are entitled: Equality and Discrimination: Understanding the Basics Prevent Discrimination: Support Equality Discrimination: What to do if it happens The guides can be found here and […]
ACAS Early conciliation one year on
It has now been just over a year since it became mandatory for the parties to use ACAS EC before proceeding with a claim before the Employment Tribunal save for in limited circumstances where the exceptions apply. ACAS have now published their annual report setting out how they have got on in the first year. […]
Genuine sickness absence?
According to a survey by healthcare provider Benenden Health, 60% of bosses do not believe the reason given by an employee for absence and 33% of managers scour social media after a sickness call to see if the employee is genuine. Having seen the worst excuses 1000 bosses and 1000 employees had heard for taking […]
Unison Challenge 2 rejected
The High Court has rejected the second challenge by Unison to the Employment Tribunal Fee Scheme introduced in the summer of 2013. The second application was made after the statistics were published showing the dramatic reduction in the number of claims. However, even the data was not sufficient to convince the Court that the scheme […]
Automatic pension enrolment
This month’s business development briefing explains the obligations that the automatic pension enrolment requirements place on a business. It is designed as a guide to some of the issues for employers and not as a definitive guide. What is auto-enrolment? From a date after October 2012, businesses will be required to automatically enrol […]
Early conciliation statistics
The first quarter’s statistics for ACAS Early Conciliation have been released. In April, the scheme was still voluntary and ACAS processed around 1,000 applications a week. Once the process became compulsory in May and June this rose to an average of 1,600 applications. ACAS say that this mirrored the expectation for demand on the service. Interestingly, […]
Employment Tribunals
By way of an update, the Ministry of Justice has published tribunal statistics for January to March 2014 which show a continuation in the reduction in the number of claims since fees were introduced in July 2013. This time the drop was around 59% for single individuals compared with the same period in 2013. Unison […]
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 […]