Employment Law E-Bulletin

December 09

QUICK LINK

This month's cases in full

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65 AND OUT? EMPLOYER'S RETIREMENT PROCEDURE 

The Government has now launched its long awaited consultation and review into the retirement age.  The review comes hot on the heels of the High Court’s decision in the long running and much publicised ‘Heyday’ Case which was the challenge, led by Age Concern, to the legality of having a set age at which an employer can force and employee to retire and the Government’s decision to set the retirement age at 65. 

Read full article

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CASES

Religion and Belief

Regular readers may remember that, back in April, we covered the case of Nicholson v Grainger Plc in which the Employment Tribunal decided that Mr Nicholson’s strength of feeling about the state of the environment, and the need to act in order to save the planet, amounted to a philosophical belief which should enjoy protection under the Regulations. 

Grainger Plc’s appeal against this decision was recently heard by the Employment Appeal Tribunal

Associative Discrimination

Another case that we have covered before is that of Coleman v Attridge Law.  Back in October 2008, we reported that the European Court of Justice (“the ECJ”) had given judgment in favour of Mrs Coleman, who had argued that she should be protected under disability legislation, even though she herself was not disabled.

This month's cases in full

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LEGISLATION UPDATE

Minimum Wage Rise

As a quick reminder, readers should note that the National Minimum Wage was increased from £5.73 to £5.80 for workers aged 22 and over, £4.77 to £4.83 for workers aged 18 to 21 and from £3.53 to £3.57 for workers aged 16 and 17 from October 1 2009 onwards.

Queen’s Speech

Looking to the future, the Queen’s speech, which was delivered last month, mentioned a number of employment law measures.  The two main ones were reassertions by the Government of previous commitments including taking forward the Equality Bill.  This will consolidate all existing discrimination legislation into a single Act.  It is also intended to create greater transparency in relation to pay by, for example, prohibiting “pay secrecy” clauses.

Of perhaps greater significance was the Government’s commitment to putting into place legislation to give agency workers equal rights to permanent staff in relation to pay, holidays and sickness absence.  The Government still intends to implement this legislation in accordance with the agreements that it made in 2008 with the trade unions (which allowed for equal treatment to apply only once an agency worker has been with a company for twelve weeks or more), but the legislation is not scheduled to come into force until October 2011.  However, this is an area another area of law which people will need to keep an eye on and which employers may need to prepare for over the course of the coming year.

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FLOODS

Burnetts is to give free legal advice to Cumbrian businesses and individuals following the recent devastation wreaked by the weather in the County.

The firm is making the offer to anyone in Cumbria who needs advice on flood-related issues.

The offer, which will last at least until 30th April 2010, covers any type of legal support such as advice on leases or tenancies for businesses which need to temporarily re-locate. Experience from 2005 indicates that it’s also likely that residents will need legal help following problems with slow insurance companies or rogue builders.

To find out more, visit our floods page or email floods@burnetts.co.uk

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For further information on the issues featured here or any other employment law matter, contact Burnetts on 01228 552222.

Dec 09

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