 |
Press Releases from Employment Relations
Employment News May 2009
As the film “The Boat that Rocked” shows, the 1960’s were a decade of change. At the time the pirate radio stations were establishing themselves in opposition to the BBC and much exercising the Postmaster-General of the time, Anthony Wedgewood Benn, and other developments were close on hand. 1968 saw women machinists at Fords Dagenham factory going on strike over re-grading where their work, which they alleged was of equal value to that carried out by men. In May 1969 there was a big demonstration in support of equal pay and by 1970 the then employment secretary Barbara Castle brought in the Equal Pay Act. The act has been amended over the years as a result of European directive and case law but changes are afoot with the equality bill. More of which below.
Directors' Bonuses
The recent high court case involving Rose Gibb, the former chief executive of the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells health trust may have ramifications that extend beyond her own case. She had famously secured a severance payment of £175,000 from the trust which Alan Johnson ordered the trust not to pay. Rose Gibb took her case, for enforcement of the agreement, to court and the high court refused to honour it on the basis that the agreement itself was ultra vires.
Whilst the legal decision has yet to be published, it would appear that the line of reasoning adopted by the court was, that as she would not have had a cause of action through the tribunal for this amount of money, it was wrong of the trust to agree to it. Tony Bertin, of this firm, did an interview with the BBC last April about the case.
The particular interest outside of the case, is the possible affect it may have on the decisions to pay bank directors surprisingly large sums of money and/or pensions on quitting their job. If the bank directors who vote through such packages cannot be shown to be responding to a litigation peril, then it may well be that these pay offs will be the subject of high court challenge.
At the moment, Rose Gibb has indicated an intention to appeal and her case may well be viewed with some trepidation inside a bank boardroom.
Age Discrimination
The current position of employers being able to acquire retirement at or after the age of 65 may not survive. In these current febrile times, bank bench labour MPs are likely to move amendments in the equality bill to try and have the retirement age scrapped. As a result of the Heyday case, through the European Court of Justice, the government has been told that it has to justify the retirement age by showing that they need to fix a particular retirement age because it is objectively and reasonably justified. If they cannot then the fixed age goes.
In a report in the Daily Telegraph a waiter at the Monkey Island Hotel, Pietro Dell’Osa, is suing for unfair dismissal and age discrimination. His case is due to be heard in July.
Elsewhere, Linda Sturdy is reported in the Daily Mail as having won compensation of £39,200 for discrimination by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The Trust were held to be high handed, malicious, insulting and oppressive in victimising the 56 year old worker.
Equal Pay
The proposed equality bill will change the current regime and bring equal pay within the ambit of the Equality Act. The bill proposes:
Gender pay information. Any employer with more than 250 employees will have to publish information relating to the pay of employees to show whether there are differences between male and female.
Secrecy laws will be outlawed. These are clauses to be found in approximately a quarter of employment contracts banning staff from talking to each other about pay.
It will also be legal to allow positive discrimination in favour of disadvantaged groups if candidates are otherwise equally qualified.
Disability
A private members bill titled the Employment Retention Bill proposes to give newly disabled employees and those whose impairments change, the right for rehabilitation leave. They will also be entitled to a disability assessment. Disabled support might be necessary to enable them to stay in work. The second reading of this bill is due to take place on 8 May.
Flexible Working
The right to request flexible working has been extended to the parents of all children under the age of 17. In considering requests, the employer should be looking at the needs of the business rather than the situation of the employee. Whilst it might be tempting to say that the parent of a teenage child has less need than the parent of a baby, that is seen to substitute the employer’s view rather than the employees. Requests, if they are to be refused, should be on business grounds.
Heath and Safety
We offer our usual link to the health and safety newsletter published by MESH consultants.
Internet Use and Abuse
Facebook takes centre stage again. According to the BBC News online service, a prison officer in Leicester was dismissed for associating with prisoners through Facebook.
Again, the BBC site reports that a Swiss woman lost her job for using Facebook at a time when she supposedly could not use a computer because of a migraine attack.
Maternity and Paternity leave
Proposals before the European parliament are for both women in a gay partnership who adopt to be allowed to take maternity and/or paternity leave.
According to a report in Personnel Today, the European parliament is considering extending paid maternity leave to 20 weeks at the maximum rate rather than the current 6 weeks at 90% of average earnings. A proposal has also been tabled to ensure that a returning mother should have protection against redundancy or dismissal for the first 6 months after a return to work.
Discrimination
A report in the Mail online suggests that the management at Network Rail have paid away millions of pounds in tax payers money to avoid claims of race and sex discrimination against one of the firm’s senior executives. The claim is made by Vicki Lydford in a tribunal claim that has been settled. An internal investigation had taken place and this supported claims that the executive concerned had made politically incorrect remarks. However, no action had been thought necessary because he had not acted maliciously.
Elsewhere, a Zimbabwean born vet Crispin Madavo is reported by the BBC news website to have accepted compensation of £50,000 from the department of agriculture.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Rosene Railton was rewarded £112,000 against Northumberland County Council for race discrimination having been told that she should eat alone, was refused holidays and told she did not fit in.
Performance Management
Our breakfast forum on 15 May is on the subject of performance management. It is probably the biggest single area of omission by employers that we see. In the absence of regular performance management and performance management that is honestly and dispassionately undertaken, it can be very difficult to:
Select employees for redundancy.
Dismiss an employee for performance.
Resist claims for discrimination.
Press Releases
3 April 2009 - Employment Law Changes in April 2009
