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A recent decision may provide some encouragement to employers seeking to resist compliance with subject access requests that they believe have been made for the purposes of actual or contemplated litigation, writes Charles Wynn-Evans ‘The person making a SAR is not obliged to (nor can the recipient of the request require them to) state why …
Continue reading "Data Protection Act: Avoiding fishing expeditions"
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Jemima Coleman considers the next steps in the government’s proposed overhaul of employment legislation ‘Although the government’s intentions may be laudable, the proposed changes are complex and wide-ranging, which will inevitably lead to a period of uncertainty for both employers and employees.’ The Queen’s Speech on 9 May 2012 gave employment lawyers an insight into …
Continue reading "Employment Law Reform: Queen’s Speech sheds light on new legislative framework"
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Christopher Hitchins analyses the eagerly awaited decisions in Seldon and Homer on justifying direct and indirect age discrimination ‘We now have Supreme Court guidance on legitimate aims and the scope for justifying direct discrimination on the grounds of age, particularly in the context of mandatory retirement ages.’The Supreme Court has recently handed down its judgments …
Continue reading "Age Discrimination: Supreme Court gives landmark retirement rulings"
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Sarah Fitzpatrick looks at the lessons from recent case law on applying for a costs order ‘The EAT held that if a tribunal chooses not to have regard to means, it should have a reason for doing so and say what the reason is.’ A number of recent cases have highlighted the steps that parties …
Continue reading "Tribunal Procedure: A costly mistake"
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A recent EAT case has highlighted the difficulties involved in awarding damages for aggravating conduct separately from compensation for injury to feelings, explains Sarah Gregory ‘The EAT observed that aggravated damages are an aspect of injury to feelings and reiterated that their purpose is essentially compensatory, not punitive.’In a recent case, the Employment Appeal Tribunal …
Continue reading "Aggravated Damages: Compensation for making a bad situation worse"
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Jemima Coleman and Katie Russell weigh up the steps companies can take to improve female representation at board level without committing unlawful positive discrimination ‘There is no obligation on an employer to take positive action measures. However, if it does, its actions must be proportionate.’ Gender diversity at board level is an important issue politically, …
Continue reading "Board-Level Diversity: Skirting the issue"
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A number of recent decisions suggest that the EAT is taking a more restrictive approach to when TUPE applies to a service-provision change, report Kate Barker and Rob Collier-Wright ‘The government decided to clarify the position under UK law by introducing new provisions in reg 3(1)(b) TUPE, which made it clear that employees will transfer …
Continue reading "TUPE: Outsourcing: back to square one?"
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Jonathan Exten-Wright examines the current state of play with the government’s wide-ranging changes to employment law, including its controversial proposals for compensated no-fault dismissals ‘An individual who started employment with a new employer on or after 6 April 2012 must now have two years’ continuous service to be eligible to bring a complaint of unfair …
Continue reading "Employment Law Reform: The Employer’s Charter and beyond"
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Katharine McPherson reviews the decision in Woodcock v Cumbria PCT and considers what role cost may play in justifying treatment that would otherwise amount to discrimination ‘In accordance with previous case law, the court agreed that an employer cannot justify discrimination simply because not discriminating would involve increased costs.’ For some time now, case law …
Continue reading "Justification Defence: Revisiting the ‘cost plus’ rule"
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Dan Aherne and Libby Payne contemplate the courts’ and the government’s attempts to address difficulties with the law on consulting employees about collective redundancies ‘In this article, we consider how four recent decisions have sought to address ambiguities in the existing collective consultation legislation and the potential for reform following the call for evidence.’ In …
Continue reading "Collective Redundancy: Restructuring the consultation rules"
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