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Family lawyers often talk about how Christmas gives rise to an upsurge in divorce work in the New Year. The same is probably also true of personal injury work, if to a lesser extent. Claims for personal injury usually involve
The numbers of road traffic accidents increases in the winter with poor light and icy conditions.
As the wheels fall off time’s winged chariot and Old Father Time is evicted from his nursing home;
And as the Partygoer of Unquenchable Thirst prepares to meet the Office Party of Bitter Experience, it’s that time of the year again: the annual review.
In case it were needed, the Daily Telegraph today reported on a case where “laddish” behaviour in the workplace led to a substantial payout for the female Claimant, Miss Angelina Ashby, which included £15,000 for injury to feelings and £9,158 for loss of earnings. Read the article for the details, but this case should serve as a reminder that this sort of behaviour just isn’t acceptable in the workplace.
Male workers made unpleasant jibes about her weight and appearance and viewed pornography online. When she issued a grievance she was criticised for being too sensitive and “unmanageable”. She won her claim for sex discrimination and constructive dismissal against her employers. There are no great surprises there.
Amidst all the hullabaloo over the government’s plans to reform employment law, one issue that hasn’t got as much of an airing as it might deserve is over mediation/conciliation. In the Law Society Gazette yesterday an article stated that the government intends to promote mediation in the workplace.
Apparently less than 50% of employer respondents to the government’s recent “Resolving Workplace Disputes” had used mediation to resolve disputes, which is a number I find surprisingly high in fact. The more interesting question though is at what stage did they use it? I would guess that for many businesses mediation is only used when the lawyers suggest it as a means of settling a dispute and avoiding a trial.
Sorry Guys, Not Under This Government
There have been many excellent blogs, articles and podcasts on the government’s proposals for the “most radical reform to the employment law system for decades” contained in its “Resolving Workplace Disputes: Government Response to the Consultation” Here is my regrettably belated contribution to the debate.
The full review can be read by clicking the link, but if you don’t want to wade through all 55 pages of the report, here are the headlines. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary also added in some further proposals in a later speech.
Last week the government announced various plans for reforming employment law. I’ll be writing about them shortly…
I wonder if the employee above has just been made aware of his “Compensated No Fault Dismissal” package?
Continuing the theme from my last post, I stumbled upon a picture of another employee forced to dress up for work. I don’t think this is quite as bad as forcing Father Christmas to promote Pizzas at road junctions, but it’s not far off. Love it!
Then think again. It could be a lot, lot worse. For instance, this morning (19th November – 35 shopping days to Christmas) I saw Santa with a sandwich board advertising Dominos pizzas standing at a cross roads.
This prompted several questions, mainly from my 4 year old daughter who may still believe; such as “what is Santa doing standing there”, “why?” and “where are the reindeers?”. My question was “what has Santa got to do with pizzas?” Is it likely to make me rush out to Dominos and invest? Unlikely and not just because I’m a food snob.
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Banks are facing a rising tide of stress at work claims, according to Reuters yesterday. The report refers to anecdotal evidence by GQ Employment Lawyers to the effect that the number of “stress related lawsuits” is on the increase, but doesn’t say what type of lawsuits, nor give any statistics to back up the assertion.
Never mind, the Health & Safety Executive’s own statistics for 2010/11 state the following;
“The number of new cases of stress, depression or anxiety has fallen from an estimated 254,000 in 2001/02 to 211,000 [in 2010/11]” *