In
This Issue:
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Welcome |
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Disability
law change |
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Equal
pay ruling |
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Holiday
pay |
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Smoke-free
Scotland |
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New
from Acas |
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Training
shortfall |
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Safety
statistics |
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Featured
Links:
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Welcome
Preparing
for age discrimination laws continues to be the
subject currently causing businesses the most
concern.
Consultation on the draft age
discrimination legislation closed on 17 October,
with 350 responses received at that point. The
DTI tells us that these responses will now be
analysed, with the aim of publishing the results
“early in 2006” and incorporating any changes
before laying the revised regulations before
Parliament “around the turn of the
year”.
This is to enable Parliament “to
approve them as soon as possible, at least six
months before they come into force”, which is
expected to be on 1 October 2006, although we
are hearing rumours that it may be put back to 1
December 2006 to give employers a little extra
time to prepare. We will continue to keep you
informed.
[Solicitor contact details
deleted]
Disability
law change
From
5 December, anybody suffering from cancer,
multiple sclerosis or HIV will be deemed to have
a ‘disability’ and therefore be entitled to the
protection of the Disability Discrimination Act
1995.
A further change makes it easier
for people suffering from mental illness to fall
within the definition of ‘disabled’. Before 5
December, a mental illness had to be ‘clinically
well recognised’ in order to qualify. From 5
December, that requirement is
removed.
One of the main effects is that
employers will be under a duty to make
reasonable adjustments for those suffering from
these conditions, when previously they may not
have had to. Such adjustments will include
allowing the employees to change to flexible
working patterns in order to accommodate medical
treatment.
Equal
pay ruling
The
Employment Appeal Tribunal has decided that the
equal pay “genuine material defence” requires
objective justification.
This is a
departure from the traditional UK approach
requiring an employer simply to be able to
account for a pay difference by referring to a
factor that is material but is not the
employee's gender — unless the factor is itself
one which may discriminate against female
employees, in which case it must be objectively
justified.
Instead, in Sharp v
Caledonia Group Services Ltd, the Employment
Appeal Tribunal has relied on the 2001 European
Court of Justice authority of Brunhoffer v
Bank Der Osterrichischen Postparkasse AG
requiring objective justification, choosing not
to follow its own decision last year in
Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
v Fernandez, which held that a genuine
material factor not related to sex was
sufficient.
This ruling makes it much
harder for employers to justify differences in
pay, particularly in ‘red circling’ cases.
However, permission has been given for the
employer to appeal to the Court of Appeal, so
the decision may end up being overturned in the
next twelve months.
Holiday
pay
Earlier
this year, we reported that that the Court of
Appeal had decided that employees on long-term
sick did not continue to accrue the right to
four weeks’ paid holiday each year.
The
House of Lords has just given permission to
appeal that decision. This means that the issue
— thought by employers to have been resolved —
remains uncertain for the time being.
Smoke-free
Scotland
As
you will know, a ban on smoking in the majority
of public places comes into force from 26 March
2006.
The Scottish Executive has produced
a set of PDFs, including approved guidance, the
essentials of a “smoke-free policy”, information
for bar staff, and “no smoking” signs in a
variety of designs. Details from http://www.clearingtheairscotland.com/faqs/guidance.html
New
from Acas
The
Acas Model Workplace has been unveiled, offering
a “one-stop” guide identifying the features of
an organisation where people are managed
effectively. The booklet will be priced at £4.95
but for the next three months will be available
free for single copies and at £1.95 for two or
more. Copies can be ordered via the website, by
calling 08702 429090, or by emailing acas@eclogistics.co.uk.
Among other recent additions to the Acas
website are:
- the Acas Recognition Report, the findings
(in PDF form) of a study which investigates the
role and impact of Acas in the trade union
recognition process following the introduction
of Schedule A1 of the Employment Relations Act
1999. Nine case studies are used, including
interviews with employers and union officers, as
well as Acas conciliators.
- a new, free online learning course to help
understand and prevent workplace bullying, with
topics including definitions of bullying and
harassment, recognition and prevention, and the
consequences of inaction. This is seventh such
online course, which requires initial user
registration.
- an updated version of its 56-page PDF
Religion or Belief in the Workplace – guidance
to Employment Equality (Religion or Belief)
Regulations 2003.
- updated website guidance on flexible
working.
Details of all these available
from http://www.acas.org.uk
Training
shortfall
A
third of businesses never offer any training to
their staff and 39 per cent of the UK workforce
received no training last year, according to a
TUC report.
The report — Training, Who
Gets It? — found those in semi-skilled and
manual jobs were the least likely to get
training: while 60 per cent of employers had
offered some form of training to professional
staff in the past year, only 45 per cent had
made the same offer to manual
workers.
The 41-page PDF can be
downloaded from http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-10947-f0.cfm
Safety
statistics
Latest
key figures from the Health and Safety Executive
for 2004-05 show that:
- 220 workers were killed, a rate of 0.7 per
100,000 workers
- 361 members of the public were fatally
injured
- 150,559 non-fatal injuries to workers were
reported (a rate of 587 per 100,000
workers)
- 2 million people suffered from an illness
they considered was caused or worsened by
current or past employment
- 35 million working days were lost overall
(1.5 per worker), 28 million due to work-related
ill-health and 7 million due to workplace
injury.
Full details in PDF form from http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overpic.htm
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