Employment Law Update

Welcome

I have it on what I believe to be good authority that women have enough difficulty in deciding what they should wear to work generally* and the developments over the last few weeks will not have made things any easier. Firstly, there was the woman who was sent home from her temporary receptionist job at PwC (via an agency) because she wasn’t wearing high heels. Without pay. Now, you might well be shouting at me through your screen; “all the funky and groovy guys and chicks are wearing heels – platforms, stacked, Cubans – take a chill pill man, you dig?” And while it may be fun to be living in the 1970s, I would have to remind you that the rest of us are in the 21st Century (and that people never actually spoke like that back then).

The second situation arose with a weather presenter (widely described as a ‘weather girl’) in the US. She was merrily passing on her meteorological guesses when she was interrupted and handed a cardigan by the floor manager. I should point out here that she was wearing a relatively modest black dress (to assist: not suitable for a football match on a cold, wet February evening, but wouldn’t look out of place at Glorious Goodwood). When handed the cardigan, she said sadly: “but now I look like a librarian”. Apparently there had been many complaints about the dress from public-minded viewers, who took time out of their busy schedules to phone the TV station and complain about being able to see most of a woman’s shoulders and some of her legs. This was swiftly followed by numerous complaints from librarians (let’s hope).

I could link these two incidents to a well-meaning but tedious article about dress codes at work, but that would give them more credit than they deserve. So, instead, let’s look at a far more exciting and relevant topic (and one I’m sure you’re not sick of yet): Brexit and employment law…

Brexit and Bremain

The EU referendum is beginning to loom large. The choice will be Brexit (irritating but handy short-hand for leaving the EU) or Bremain (short-hand for staying in the EU, which hasn’t caught on enough to be irritating). Many employers and employees want to know what the likely changes will be to employment law, if Britain leaves the European Union, to assist them in making an informed choice.

In theory, if the UK did leave the EU, the Government could rip up all of the current employment law and start again un-hampered by the so-called ‘bureaucrats in Brussels’. Of course, this is extremely improbable and the consequences are likely to be far less dramatic.

On the one side, we have the trade unions who fear Brexit will lead to the serious erosion of employment rights. The TUC have published what it describes as ‘an independent legal opinion on Brexit’, which identifies the rights at greatest risk. These include: maternity rights, holiday pay, protection against age discrimination and protections for agency workers. The General Secretary of the TUC says the erosion of rights over the last decade, (such as unfair dismissal rights) shows the direction in which the Government would prefer to travel. In other words, it is saying, given free-rein, the Government could scythe through workers’ rights and, given past performance, it is likely to do so…

Read more about the implications here.

ACAS

Before an employee can bring a claim against you in the Employment Tribunal, in most cases, they first have to go through the ACAS Early Conciliation Process. We have introduced a fixed fee service for employers to provide representation during this process.

Read more about the introduction to the ACAS fixed fee here.

Holiday Pay and Overtime

For those of you following developments in inclusion of overtime in holiday pay calculations, there have been some disconcerting developments. If you follow our blog on the subject, you will be aware that compulsory overtime is now included in calculations. But two recent Tribunal decisions have found that voluntary overtime (overtime that you cannot insist an employee works) may be included in statutory holiday pay. Whether it is actually included will depend on the particular facts of each case. In short, both cases are indicating that overtime, which is sufficiently regular to have become part of normal pay, should be included in the calculation. See our holiday pay blog for updates.

Breakfast Briefing – 8th June

We hold our Breakfast Briefing on 8th June 2016 at the Ageas Bowl, at which Darren Tibble is the main speaker (discussing monitoring employees), supported by Laurence Dunn (HR influence at disciplinary hearings) and Daryl Cowan (Brexit and employment law).

For more information and to book your tickets, click here.

Darren Tibble’s Employment Law Snapshot

If you missed Darren’s most recent Snapshot (and video) you can catch up here to hear about the ‘Gramps’ age discrimination case and jobs for Ninja’s.

Any Finally…

Having started this round–up with a ‘the 70s has called and wants its employee relations back’ vibe, here’s something that can only be 21st Century (albeit, a situation that perennial 60s and 70s shirker, ‘the lad himself’ Tony Hancock, would have revelled in – and for those of you too young to get that reference; congratulations):

A Frenchman is claiming he was given so little to do at work he suffered ‘bore out’. Frédéric Desnard says his managerial job was so tedious he became exhausted and bored out of his mind, which was similar to a burnout, but less interesting. Desnard, who is seeking £282,000 in compensation, complained that he was mis au placard, which translates as ‘put in the cupboard’. This involves giving employees little or no work, or menial tasks. Not one for understatement, he described the situation as a ‘descent into hell’– ironically, the Bible describes hell as ‘a place of no rest’…

*DISCLAIMER: I have been given to understand this from some women but they do not hold themselves out as in any way speaking for all women. For the avoidance of doubt I do not in any way hold myself out as speaking for or on behalf of any women and neither do I pretend to be qualified to do so.