Employment Update
29 August 2008
Each year, millions of working days are lost due to sickness absence, costing the UK billions of pounds. Many organisations struggle to cope with increasing levels of absenteeism, unsure how to approach absence rates and manage absence effectively.
Whether employers are faced with short-term or long term absences, trying to manage sickness absence can seem fraught with danger. How do you balance dealing with the absent employee and the other employees left to pick up the work? How long do you leave it before you take action? Will the steps you take constitute disability discrimination and/or lead to an unfair dismissal? Will dismissal on health grounds automatically trigger a generous pension or do you retain control (such as a discretion to approve payment)?
The legal implications are undoubtedly significant. However, a practical, consistent approach can protect an employer, particularly if issues are dealt with at the earliest opportunity. Our workshop will put the legal background into context and, through tailored case studies, will highlight the practical implications, enabling you to identify the key issues and take the necessary steps to manage sickness absence effectively.
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The Government has published a consultation paper this week to explore how to make dealing with flexible working requests easier for businesses.
The consultation follows on from the Government's announcement that it would extend the right to request flexible working from parents with children aged up to six years old to those with children who are 16 and under.
The consultation seeks views from businesses to suggest ways to reduce paperwork involved with flexible working requests (e.g. it considers whether to remove the requirement that employers send a formal letter when they approve an employee’s request to change their working pattern). It will also consider ways to raise awareness of the right to request flexible working among employees and boost knowledge of the range of free tools available to make dealing with requests quicker and simpler for businesses.
The consultation closes on
18 November 2008, with the Government intending to introduce the
extended right to request flexible working in April
2009.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that whilst a tribunal had jurisdiction to hear a claim for sex discrimination and harassment which related to incidents which took place in London, it did not have such jurisdiction in relation to earlier incidents which took place in Paris. The decision outlines the key principles which apply when considering a tribunal’s territorial jurisdiction under discrimination legislation.
In Tradition Securities and Futures SA v X and Y, the claimants alleged that they had been subject to sex discrimination and harassment over a number of years. The appeal relating to the tribunal’s jurisdiction concerned one of the claimants who began employment with Tradition in Paris in 2001. She moved to their London office in 2004. Her allegations related to her time in both offices and the tribunal held that it did have jurisdiction to hear her complaint in relation to the acts done during her time in Paris from 2001 to 2004. Tradition appealed this decision.
The case examined key provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (the Act). Under the Act, an employee is entitled to the protection of the legislation if he or she is employed “at an establishment in Great Britain”. The Act currently provides that if an employee works “wholly or partly in Great Britain” then he or she will be regarded as being employed at an establishment in Great Britain. Although this case concerned different wording which applied until 2005, the decision remains relevant to the interpretation of a tribunal’s territorial jurisdiction to hear discrimination claims.
The EAT confirmed in this case that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to consider this claimant’s complaints in so far as they related to her employment in Paris. At the time of the Paris complaint, the employee had spent her entire period of employment in Paris. It rejected the argument that the tribunal should have jurisdiction because the discriminatory acts committed against this claimant amounted to an “act extending over a period” and by the end of that period she had been in England for two years. The EAT stated that this phrase is found within a section of the Act which deals with the time limit for bringing an application and could not therefore be considered within the context of the jurisdiction issue.
Interestingly, whilst the
EAT followed the principles set out in earlier case law, it did not
elaborate further on the reason for the distinction between the acts
which took place in Paris and those which took place in London. This
would have been useful and may have shed some light on this
difficult area of territorial jurisdiction.
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has announced the new senior stakeholder group which will support the development of the proposed Equality Bill, which is due to be introduced in the next parliamentary session.
The group will provide advice to the GEO and its Ministers on how to strengthen equality protection further and streamline the law. This will include both those measures to be included in the Equality Bill and accompanying non-legislative measures.
The group will include representatives from across the equalities spectrum, alongside senior figures from trade unions and business organisations including the CBI, Equalities and Human Rights Commission, TUC and Press for Change.
More than 3.3 million workers are not confident they will still be in their job in a year’s time, according to a new YouGov poll commissioned by the TUC.
Workers in Wales are the least confident of keeping their jobs (20%), followed by Scottish workers (17%). Workers in the East of England, however, are the most optimistic according to the results of the poll (7%), followed by workers in London, Yorkshire and the West Midlands (12%). The results also indicate that workers in medium sized businesses (50 to 249 employees) are the least confident, with 18% of employees saying they are not confident of being in their jobs in a year, compared to 12% in big workplaces (over 1,000 employees).
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29 August 2008
Future Events
Invitations will be sent out 4 weeks before each presentation. Alternatively, you may book your place by clicking here, specifying which seminar or workshop you would like to attend, or asking to be added to our mailing list.
Workshops
Wednesday 10 September
2008
Managing
sickness absence
09.00 - 11.30
Click here
to reserve your place
Thursday 16
October 2008
Designing 21st century pension
schemes
09.00 - 11.30
Click here
to reserve your place
Wednesday 26
November 2008
21st century workplace - is technology a
help or hindrance?
09.00 - 11.30
Click here
to reserve your place
Wednesday 25
March 2009
Conducting investigations, disciplinaries and
grievances
09.00 - 11.30
Click here
to reserve your place
Seminars
Wednesday 21 January
2009
Annual HR Planner
Half day
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to reserve your place
Wednesday 25
February 2009
Protecting intellectual property - how far
can you go?
Half day
Click here
to reserve your place
Where to find us
Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP
35 Vine Street
London
EC3N 2AA
Tel: (0)20 7861 4000
Fax: (0)20 7488 0084
www.ffw.com