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In 2011 the extraordinary and surely outdated dress codes operated by Harrods department store have been highlighted by a complaint brought by former employee Melanie Stark.
As reported in The Guardian Ms Stark, who worked not in the makeup department but in the HMV franchise, was told that she must wear “full makeup” including lipliner, lipstick and lipgloss, as well as “base and full eyes”. Continue reading
An interesting discussion has emerged on the web about employment issues arising from the sudden closure by News International of the News of the World.
It is a central tenet of employment law that contract terms can be both express (i.e. written in to a contract) and implied. Some key duties, such as a duty of faithful service, are implied into all contracts of employment, whether or not a written contact exists. Continue reading
Jonathan Jones was dismissed by his employer, Jewson, five months after he suffered a stroke. He was the branch manager of their Cardigan branch and had worked for the company for 22 years. His employer relied on incapacity as a potentially fair reason for dismissal. Unfair dismissal law provides that employment may be terminated on the ground of ill-health incapacity if it becomes clear that the employee is unlikely to be able to return to work in the reasonably foreseable future. Continue reading
A Ms. O’Farrell worked for Publicis Consultants UK Ltd. Her contract provided for three months’ notice. She was made redundant in May 2009 and was provided with statutory redundancy pay and holiday pay. Her dismissal letter also said that she would receive an ex-gratia payment equivalent to three months’ salary (£20,625) free of Tax and NI deductions. Continue reading
The normal rule is that an employee who is ready and willing to work but is unable to do so by reason of sickness, injury or other unavoidable impediment will, if his contract continues and subject to its terms, still be entitled to pay.
In a recent case an employee, perhaps somewhat cheekily, argued that this meant he was entitled to pay for a period when he was prevented from coming to work because he had been remanded in custody Continue reading
The annual National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations which increase the National Minimum Wage from the 1 October each year have now been laid before Parliament in draft form. Following the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission, they will provide for increases in the National Minimum Wage from 1st October 2011 as follows: Continue reading
Although sometimes used as a euphemism for dismissal, “redundancy” is nothing of the sort. It is a reason for dismissal, which may of course be fair or unfair dismissal. Three recent cases have shown that the Employment Appeal Tribunal will take a practical, pragmatic view of what is fair and unfair. The first two are concerned with selection of employees for redundancy dismissal and the third concerns consultation obligations. Continue reading
On the one hand, the Health and Safety Executive is becoming increasingly sensitive to suggestions that the way in which it enforces health and safety rules is excessively pernickety and can lead to red tape stifling initiative and supplanting common sense. It is currently conducting a high level campaign to bring proportionality into centre stage. Two recent examples are the public spat between the HSE and the tennis authorities and a recent HSE consultation on “proposals for replacement arrangements for adventure activities”. Continue reading
The Bribery Act 2010 was passed just over a year ago, on 8 April 2010, as one of the final pieces of legislation enacted by the last Labour government. The incoming Coalition government originally intended to bring the Act into force on 1 October 2010 but postponed this until April 2011 and then postponed it again while non-statutory Guidance was finalised.
The Act eventually came into force on 1 July 2011. Continue reading
Since September 2000 the basic rule has been that a worker (as defined) has the right to be accompanied by a fellow worker or trade union representative at an employer’s internal disciplinary or grievance hearing. The companion does not have the right to answer questions on behalf of the worker but does have the right to put the worker’s case, to sum up that case and to respond on the worker’s behalf to any views expressed at the hearing. Continue reading