I am delighted to announce that I will be writing the Employment Law resource on Insite Law, the online legal resource page run by Charon QC. It is designed to be an online textbook, with hyperlinks to cases and to be capable of being updated regularly so that it remains current.
One what you might ask? To avoid potentially unpublishable suggestions, let me just clarify that Jobsworth – the employment law blog is one year old today. It is, incredibly, one whole calendar year since I started this blog, which arose out of a newspaper column I was then writing. 95 posts later I’m still enjoying writing it but, more importantly, I hope you enjoy reading it. To all of my regular readers may I say thank you for your support and kind comments? Some of you have even been kind enough to instruct me at Dale Langley & Co, where I do my day job. I’ve had some very positive feedback on what I’ve written, which has been helpful. If there are any topics you would like to see covered please let me know.
I was pleased to learn that Riam Dean, the law student who sued Abercrombie & Fitch for wrongful dismissal and unlawful harassment (because of her disability) won her case at the London Central Employment Tribunal. According to The Independent today, she was awarded £7,800 compensation for injury to feelings, £1,077.37 for loss of earnings and £136.75 damages for being wrongfully dismissed. It is reported that she did not succeed with her claim for “direct” disability discrimination which the ET thought was “not well founded”. I would be interested to read the law report on this case, if it ever gets published, for the reasoning behind the decision. I’ve posted before on the case (click here).
The FT is reporting today that the FSA has finally produced its remuneration code on how bankers should be paid. I have only seen the headlines and brief summary of the proposals, but it seems that the FSA has shied away from being too prescriptive for fear of driving bankers abroad to less tightly regulated markets. Expect a deluge of criticism to fall on top of the FSA, whose days are numbered if the Tories return to power at the next election.
I spent a good part of yesterday evening preparing a seminar that I have been asked to give at the City Business Library on 20th October next. The topic handed to me is the title to this post: “Contracts of Employment: what you need to know”, to cover one hour. The seminar is aimed at new businesses looking to take on staff for the first time. At first glance I thought it would be an easy topic, one I am very familiar with, nothing too controversial and plenty of time for discussion afterwards. Then, on my way in to work this morning, tapping out a skeleton presentation in Powerpoint on the trusty laptop, I realised just what I have let myself in for.
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Unusually for an August the topic of bonuses is back in the news pages. This isn’t surprising given that the recession has been firmly blamed on reckless bankers supposedly taking unnecessary risks to generate huge returns that almost led the banking system to collapse last autumn. Both Barclays and HSBC have announced huge profits for the last six months. In Barclays case it was £3bn up 8% on the equivalent period last year, and the comparable figure for HSBC was £2.8bn. Both banks also revealed that they were making massive provision for bad debts. Bob Diamond, the head of Barclays Capital (BarCap) was on the front page of The Independent on Tuesday, where it was reported that he had received a remuneration package in excess of $50mn at the height of the boom. The Independent also reported that the “average net income generated per member of staff” at BarCap had increased from £134,000 to £193,000 per member of staff in the last six months. The FT also reports today that a US hedge fund group called Och-Ziff, based in the US made a loss of $88.3mn because of a 74% increase in bonuses paid to its top traders. At the Dale Langley & Co website we recently posted on the steps the FSA are taking to try and restrict remuneration packages – click here to visit. The government, the FSA and the public are all determined to stick the boot in.