Employment Law E-Bulletin

Feb 08

QUICK LINK

Read this month's cases in detail

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AGENCY WORKERS – THE END OF THE LINE, OR THE START OF THE FIGHT?

Earlier this month the Court of Appeal handed down its much awaited decision in the case of James v Greenwich Borough Council. This decision comes at a time when proposed legislation to provide further protection to agency workers is being debated both in Parliament and in the wider world of work.

The issue for the Courts was when should an agency worker be classed as an employee of the end user as opposed to an employee of the agency.  The previous position was that agency workers were often just workers with no employment relationship with either the agency or the user of the agency’s services and therefore little employment law protection.

Read full article

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CASES

Holiday pay for those off sick?

The Advocate General has handed down her opinion concerning this key case which deals with holiday pay for workers off on long term sick leave.

Discrimination without a disability

The Advocate General has also given an opinion on the highly contentious issue as to whether a worker can be discriminated against on the grounds of another person’s disability.

Using expired warnings

The Court of Appeal has now decided that the misconduct which lead to an expired disciplinary warning can be taken into account when employers are making dismissal decisions even if the warning itself cannot.

Read this month's cases in detail

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LEGISLATION

Employers may be relieved to know that it is a quiet period for new employment legislation at the moment. The most relevant Bill going through Parliament is the Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill 2008 as mentioned above in the main article.

As the main article explains this Bill is not without controversy and may not become law, but a brief outline of what the Bill proposes is set out below for your information.

The Bill aims to clarify the relationship between agencies, end users and the worker by legislating that both the agency and the end user shall:
(1) be deemed to be the employer of the worker; and
(2) have joint and severable liability for any award of compensation that might be ordered in respect of a relevant complaint.

If this Bill becomes law, it will substantially increase the burden on both employers and agencies with regards to their responsibilities towards agency workers.

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If you have any queries regarding any of the issues above, or any other employment matters please do not hesitate to contact the Employment Law Team at Burnetts on 01228 552222.

Feb 2008