As an employer, if you want to avoid your name appearing in the Metro or any of the other free papers, try to avoid sacking employees suffering from cancer by email. This is the moral from the recent report concerning Melinda Bolnar, a 27 year old teacher suffering from bowel cancer and who had just endured seven months of chemotherapy and given a 30% chance of survival. According to the report it is alleged that her private school sacked her by email. I should point out that the case is due to be heard at an Employment Tribunal later this year and the above report are merely the employee’s allegations against her employer and not the proven facts.
My friend Richard Gordon is taking part in the above cycle challenge later this month to raise funds for St Francis Childrens’ Society in Milton Keynes, as well as the RNLI, Prostate Cancer Charity and a local charoty called MK Snap for people with special needs.
They have committed to cycling (in relay) 500 miles through and around the Loire. Donations can be made via this address
http://www.justgiving.com/teamfrankieskids/
Good luck guys!
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Most people know that employers these days shouldn’t in job interviews ask women of child-bearing age when they intend to start a family. Nor should they now ask potential employees how old they are. The reason in both cases is that (a) it is usually going to be none of the employer’s business but, also, (b) it runs the risk of the applicant/employee later stating that the failure to appoint them was on discriminatory grounds. A report on the Personnel Today website from a few days ago questioned the wisdom of Cherwell District Council in asking employees to state whether they intended to retire in the next two or three years. The Council is currently asking staff to work fewer hours or to work without pay to avoid the need for redundancies. However, its request to staff to detail their plans and aspirations over the next two to three years could lead to them facing an age discrimination claim, suggests the article, if an employee could show that they were selected for redundancy because of their stated plan to seek retirement. The same risk would apply if a woman stated she intended to start a family and was subsequently place “at risk”.
There are some things you just don’t expect to come across, like good weather at Bank Holiday weekends for instance, or Amnesty International being found by the Employment Appeal Tribunal to have discriminated against one of its employees on the grounds of race. Yet that is what was found to have occurred in the case of Amnesty International v Ahmed that was reported recently.
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.
Now, if this doesn’t provoke a whole heap of comments, no doubt mainly derogatory, nothing will. This being the silly season it seems like an ideal time to ask the question. And I’m not going to tell you the answer. Instead I suggest you read Tim Kevan’s new book “Baby Barista and the Art of War”, just published by Bloomsbury and which is based on his blog in The Times. Tim is also a barrister, albeit he is currently taking a break from practising in favour of surfing in Devon and walking his dog.
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.
This is a preview of
Contracts of Employment: what you need to know
.
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