Employment Law Update

Welcome to our latest newsletter, designed to keep you updated on the latest developments in employment law, and to inform you of what is on the horizon.

STOP PRESS

Qualifying Periods: putting the unfair back into unfair dismissal

In a move that took many by surprise, the Government announced last week that the qualifying period for claiming unfair dismissal will be increased from one to two years on 6 April next year. We set out our thoughts on these measures here.

Raising the Temp-erature

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 came into force on 1 October. If you use temps, or supply them (or, indeed, if you are one), these Regulations will apply to you. You need to know about them and get prepared. The Government’s Guidance to the Regulations can be found here. Our interactive guide to the Regulations can be found here.

Do your duty

The key to protecting your business against unfair competition by employees is to ensure that you can identify and enforce your employees’ duties. The key to lawfully acquiring another business’s team is to know where to draw the line when making the necessary approaches. We set out the latest developments in case law here.

Downsizing and delayering: developments in redundancy consultation

With an uncertain economic future ahead, some recent cases have given employers guidance on how to effect redundancy dismissals. If you are thinking about reducing your headcount, you may find this article helpful.

Don’t quota me on that

FTSE 350 companies were due to report this month on how they plan to increase the number of women on their boards. Some people are advocating the use of compulsory quotas if not enough is done voluntarily to redress the balance. Helen Croft, Legal Director in our Employment Department discusses some of the plans in the following video clip. Further information on this issue can also be found in our article 'Boardroom diversity is desirable - quotas are not'.

It's a numbers game

The latest Tribunal statistics (for the period April 2010 to March 2011) were released last month. They can be found here. Our analysis can be found here.

On the horizon:

You should by now have stopped relying on the default retirement age of 65. If you are considering introducing a contractual retirement age, you may wish to wait until the Supreme Court gives its decision on Seldon v Clarkson, Wright & Jakes (a case involving the retirement of a partner in a law firm), due to be heard in January 2012. For more information on the default retirement age and age discrimination more generally, please see Joanna Blackburn's recent speech to the Employment Lawyers Association.

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The Government has proposed changes to family friendly legislation to provide more flexibility. In brief, it proposes to scrap additional paternity leave, instead allowing fathers the right to share some of the mother’s maternity leave, and to extend flexible working rights to all employees. The proposals also include amending the Working Time Regulations to reflect some developments in case law relating to holiday and sick leave and forcing employers who have lost equal pay claims to audit their businesses. The Government’s response to the consultation (which closed in August) is due to be published next month.

For more information, or to discuss how any of these issues could affect your business, please contact Joanna Blackburn.