As is well known, with effect from 1 October 2011 new regulations come into force to prevent discrimination against agency supplied temporary workers. Under the Regulations agency workers will be entitled to the same basic treatment as directly employed workers once they have completed a qualifying period of 12 weeks in a particular job. This…
In June 2010 the Prime Minister appointed Lord Young of Graffham to review health and safety laws and the growth of the compensation culture. Lord Young’s report “Common Sense Common Safety”, was published in October. One of the recommendations was that the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations should be amended to extend…
Even leading law firms can get it wrong. What do employers do if they have to make redundancies and one of the candidates has been absent on maternity leave? That gave rise to a dilemma for national solicitors’ firm Eversheds. They have lost a legal battle but it is possible that they will win the…
There has been much recent publicity about the position of interns. There are basically two issues, one legal and the other social. The legal point relates to the fact that interns are often (but not always) unpaid or low paid and so National Minimum Wage issues arise. The social point (not considered further here) has…
The Supreme Court ruled on 30 March 2011 that (save in respect of defamation) it is time to bring to an end the immunity from suit traditionally extended to expert witnesses. So from now on if an expert witness is negligent in giving evidence in a trial it will be open to a person who…
The Government has announced that it is accepting the National Minimum Wage recommendations in the Low Pay Commission’s 2011 report. Accordingly increases in the National Minimum Wage will come into effect on 1 October 2011 as follows: The adult rate will increase by 15p to £6.08 an hour; The rate for 18-20 year olds will…