Employment Law Update
Welcome
It’s Christmas party season again and you will have no doubt received the annual doomy solicitors’ warnings (about as welcome as a Victorian Aunt at a boozy dinner) about office parties, mentioning the word ‘Christmas’ and having fun. In short, the advice on all fronts generally seems to be ‘no’. If it assists, we tend to take our staff to a yoga retreat where alcohol (or any form of enjoyment) is banned. We leave them there and go to the nearest bar. See how that works for you.
The reason we’re being so caring and generous to our staff is that at DC we’ve had a tremendous year, which includes having been confirmed in the Legal 500 and also shortlisted for its national awards for Regional Law Firm of the year in employment law (representing the South East). We’d like to thank profusely all of those clients who were interviewed by the Legal 500 as it clearly did the trick!
On with the news and this week we have an interesting, and useful case for those who are looking to deal with disciplinary proceedings in the New Year.
A Useful Case for Anyone Considering Disciplinary Action in the New Year
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in Bandara v BBC has recently ruled that an employer cannot rely on an existing final written warning to dismiss an employee who is guilty of further misconduct when the decision to issue the existing warning was “manifestly inappropriate”. I believe this is a useful and instructive case for employers for reasons that will become apparent.
Read more about the case here.
Another Successful Breakfast Briefing
We delivered our trademark bi-annual Employment Law Breakfast Briefing to 90 guests at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton.
Once the bacon rolls and networking had finished, partner Laurence Dunn kicked off the morning’s session tackling the tricky subject of staff welfare and workplace absence. Delivered in unique DC Employment Solicitors’ style, attendees were taken through a series of engaging legal issues and case law related to the topic, including the key to maintaining the highest level of staff welfare.
Read more about our Breakfast Briefing here.
The Massif Challenge 2016
Partner, Laurence Dunn and two fellow keen cyclists (all three describing themselves as “in the prime of their lives”), took on the challenge of riding 500 miles in relay over three days, in order to raise much needed funds for the AAIR Charity. To find out more about their journey, click below.
Read more about The Massif Challenge here.
And finally…
Some shocking election results have rocked our world this year, not least the one that came out of America. Sometimes described as hectoring and a bit full of himself, privileged and yet speaking for the common man, Paul Hewson (AKA Bono) lead singer of U2 was named “Woman Of The Year” by Glamour Magazine. Paul was initially modest, saying “I’m sure I don’t deserve it” before pulling himself together “but I’m grateful for this award as a chance to say the battle for gender equality can’t be won unless men lead it along with women”. It seems that 2016 has been so extraordinary that Glamour magazine couldn’t find a better woman than Bono to give their award to. The floodgates having opened, you would think Time Magazine would have named Hero the stowaway Koala (pictured) as its Person of The Year. Instead it rather unimaginatively crowned Donald Trump with this accolade (albeit there has been some predictable debate as to whether he legitimately fits the category himself). The shy and self-effacing Trump doesn’t like to make a fuss about these things but he made an exception on this occasion to gracefully point out that the title “Man of The Year” would be better. And presumably having seen Bono’s extraordinary achievement he took it upon himself to speak out for women, saying “All the women want it to be ‘Man of the Year.’” And, strangely, this may actually be a rare moment of self-awareness for Donny – it’s quite possible women everywhere would rather his award were limited to men (but don’t think for one moment I’m going to follow the trend of speaking for them on this point!)
So, to round up 2016, the sooner we see the back of it the better. And on that cheery note, we wish you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
