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Today the Employment Appeal Tribunal gave another important and far reaching judgment in the long running case of Attridge Law v Coleman.

In 2007 Sharon Coleman took her employer, Attridge Law, to court.  Ms Coleman is not herself disabled, but she has a son who is.  She alleged disability discrimination and constructive dismissal, which she believed occurred as a result of her caring responsibilities for her son (discrimination by association).

The European Court of Justice decided in July that the EU’s anti-discrimination laws, which protect disabled people in the workplace, do cover their carers as well

After the ECJ’s judgment, the tribunal found in Ms Coleman’s favour, effectively outlawing associative discrimination.  The employer appealed against the decision, on the grounds that the tribunal had “distorted and rewritten” the DDA.  But today, Mr Justice Underhill, the president of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, dismissed the appeal.

The ruling means all carers are now protected by anti-discrimination legislation in the workplace.

If they have not already done so, employers should consider whether their equal opportunity, anti-harassment, anti-discrimination and absence policies comply with the law in the light of this decision.

Contact the team for more advice on 0845 644 8955 or email pm@russellhrconsulting.co.uk

Business Minister Pat McFadden and Minister for Pensions and the Ageing Society Angela Eagle have today issued a joint statement calling for evidence on retirement ages to be submitted by 1st February 2010.

Angela Eagle MP said:

“As people live and work for longer, it is sensible that we have the debate on what works for business and individuals. The laws around employment and retirement need to reflect changes in economic and social circumstances.

“That is why earlier this year we announced we were bringing the review of the default retirement age forward to 2010. Today we are asking for evidence to be submitted by 1st February to allow that to happen.”

Pat McFadden MP said:

“The default retirement age is a subject that employees, the business community, trade unions and charities all have a strong interest in.

“We want to receive information from all of these parties as it is important that our review is based on robust, detailed and wide-ranging evidence.”

The government has asked businesses and individuals to submit evidence on the default retirement age, to feed into the review taking place next year.

The evidence requested includes:-

- the operation of the default retirement age in practice;

- the reasons that businesses use mandatory retirement ages;

- the impacts on businesses, individuals and the economy of raising or removing the default retirement age;

- the experience of businesses operating without a default retirement age;

- how could any costs of raising or removing the DRA be mitigated

Submissions are requested by 1 February 2010 and should be emailed to draevidence@bis.gov.uk and/or posted to DRA Evidence, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, V497, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET.

Let’s leave the final word on retirement to the inimitable David Brent, created by Ricky Gervais.

 “You grow up, you work half a century, you get a golden handshake, you rest a couple of years and you’re dead. And the only thing that makes that crazy ride worthwhile is ‘Did I enjoy it? What did I learn? What was the point?’ That’s where I come in. You’ve seen how I react to people, make them feel good, make them think that anything’s possible. If I make them laugh along the way, sue me. And I don’t do it so they turn round and go ‘Thank you David for the opportunity, thank you for the wisdom, thank you for the laughs.’ I do it so, one day, someone will go ‘There goes David Brent. I must remember to thank him.’”

Employment Law with David Brent aka Ricky Gervais

If you need any advice on retirement age or getting some training for your team, please call us on 0845 644 8944 or email pm@russellhrconsulting.co.uk 

High profile adoptive parent, Madonna, dug the first part of the foundations of the school she is building in Malawi.  She has taken her two adopted children on a trip back to Africa to see their friends and remaining family.  One person she wants to meet up with is the father of her adopted daughter Mercy. 

The importance of fathers’ involvement at the early stage of child rearing has been much discussed in recent years and the rights of employed fathers are back in the news again. Almost half of fathers fail to take up their right to two weeks’ paternity leave and the Government has recently announced that it intends to introduce additional paternity leave for fathers of children due on or after 3 April 2011.  Fathers will be able to take up to six months of paternity leave once the mother returns to work.

With the new plans, maternity leave may become transferrable, enabling mothers of children due on or after 3 April 2011 to transfer up to six months of their maternity leave to the father when they return to work.  This may or not be paid leave, depending upon the amount of statutory maternity pay already received by the mother.  Similar rules will apply to adoptive parents. The proposed new rules are due to come into force from next April. However, the draft regulations do not affect the maternity or adoption pay period and there are no plans to increase this period to 12 months, in line with the period of leave, as was promised previously.

If you have an employment situation you’d like to talk through or have some training on, give us a call on 0845 644 8955 or email pm@russellhrconsulting.co.uk

With all the challenging developments in employment law (that’s an understatement!) many employers have joked about wanting to take on robots.

It looks as though some sectors are poised for the coming of the robot, even as I type.  This week Tesco announced the opening of their first entirely self-service shop (in Northampton, quite near us).  There will be five self-scan tills attended by a single member of staff.  Tesco describe the store as an ‘assisted service store’ designed to increase efficiency and speed up the shopping process.

Tesco is the world’s biggest food retailer and has 4,300 stores worldwide.  For the past 10 years it has created a new job approximately every 20 minutes.  This further step towards complete self service clearly has enormous implications going forward.  Self service may be quicker in some cases, but do we really want to exchange technological advancement for interaction with real humans? 

To keep and manage your existing staff, you may like to read 101 Tips for Employers - currently on half price sale and our handy guide to managing attendance, Off the Sick List.

Former X-Factor winner Leona Lewis, was assaulted recently while she was carrying out a book signing event in London.  Ms Lewis was shocked, but fortunately did not suffer any serious harm, thanks to the prompt actions of security guards.

Peter Kopwalczyk was later arrested, charged and sent for a psychiatric assessment.  Mr Kopwalczyk was not employed by the book store, but what would have been the situation if he had been a Waterstones employee?

Under the doctrine of vicarious liability, an employer may be vicariously liable for negligent acts or omissions by his employee in the course of employment, whether or not such act or omission was specifically authorised by the employer. To avoid vicarious liability, the employer will have to demonstrate either that the employee was not negligent (in that the employee was reasonably careful) or that the employee was acting in his own right rather than on the employer’s business.  Such liability may arise in a variety of circumstances, including criminal acts by an employee. 

A big risk area is where an employee engages in unlawful harassment in the course of employment, whether to someone else within the company, or to a third party.  Harassment is defined as unwanted language or behaviour which has the purpose or effect, either of violating an individual’s dignity, or creating an environment which is offensive, humiliating, degrading or intimidating.

So what can employers do to protect themselves? 

To establish a defence against harassment, you must show that you have taken all such steps as are reasonably practicable to prevent the harassment.  You need not actually prevent an employee behaving inappropriately (which would be very difficult) but you must take such steps as you reasonably can to discourage such behaviour and be able to show that you have done so.

A good start is to draft a policy, which will set out what the organisation requires.  But just having a policy is not enough.  You may need to provide training so that employees understand what constitutes harassment and what is expected of them.  And in the event of an incident, you must carry out a timely and thorough investigation.  You also need to show that you have taken appropriate action.

Obviously, we hope that you never find yourself in this situation, but as an employer these days, you need to be prepared for every eventuality, however unlikely you may think its occurrence may be.

If you would like any help in creating a policy and setting up a training programme, or need advice on an on-going situation of this nature, please contact Russell HR Consulting Ltd by phone 0845 644 8955, or by email to pm@russellhrconsulting.co.uk.  Our book 101 tips for employers which covers this, and many other employment law topics, is currently on sale at half price  – £21.00 + £2.99 p&p.

Russell HR Consulting Ltd for UK employment law advice that works

Remember that daft excuse from school?  Nobody believed it, but it didn’t stop feckless pupils from trying it on.

Since I have developed Chronic Monday-it is (a condition of which I firmly disapprove), I feel almost that I am making the same silly comment.  I don’t believe in coincidences, yet the last few months have seen a range of minor disasters that would normally only arise in a drama.

In July I went on holiday, fell off a bike while cycling and cracked a rib.  Back at work, I hobbled round, creaking and grumbling and slowly healing up.  No sooner was I able to laugh and sneeze again without collapsing with howls of pain, then my back went into spasm.  Twice.  I had Alliance & Leicester/ MBNA to thank for the severe stress that caused my back to lock.

Last Monday I had to tell my team that I’d been assaulted by a very nasty woman in my own street.  It was a bit shocking but fortunately no bones were broken (though I suspect the Police might well prefer it from an evidence point of view).  I can’t say too much about it now as the Police are currently investigating the crime but further details will follow in due course so watch this space…

And then this weekend I succumbed to food poisoning, the gruesome details of which I will spare you.  Suffice to say that despite copious quantities of Imodium and Milk of Magnolia (sic), I am still a delicate shade of green and blench pathetically at the exotic offer of dry toast and tea.

BUT:  unlike most CM sufferers I have turned up for work and stay there (though the team always try to send me home.

AND:  I am convinced that the only way is up, baby.  Speaking to my partner today, I grumbled that bad luck is supposed to go in threes.  I’ve had five pieces of bad luck.  He replied (quite wittily, I thought, considering it was before 8am) that since I never do things by halves, perhaps I should expect six bad things to happen. 

So I’m now sitting here in my tin hat, waiting for the final thing…….

Wish me luck!

Recently published statistics from 2008/09 suggest some interesting trends over the past year.

Key findings include:

• 20% increase in the number of claims accepted - but if multiple airline (cabin crew) claims are excluded, there is in fact a 4% decrease
• unfair dismissal, redundancy pay and breach of contract claims rose in number. Working time claims, equal pay and sex discrimination fell.
• maximum award (in a race case) - £1,353,432
• 21 age discrimination claims disposed of (average award £8k)
• costs awarded in 367 (0.2%) cases (average costs award £2,470)
• for the first time, the EAT rejected over 50% of all appeals at the sift stage

To ensure your business is kept out of the tribunal, contact Russell HR Consulting Ltd and find out more about our retained services – prevention is better than cure!

Tel. 0845 644 8955 or email pm@russellhrconsulting.co.uk

To see the full report please click here

The HR Hotshots at Russell HR Consulting Ltd