Law Updates
EMPLOYMENT
“Drop in Tribunal Maximum Award"
From 1st February 2010 the maximum compensatory award that the Employment Tribunal can make drops from £66,200 to £65,300. A week’s pay for the purposes of calculating a basic award and a redundancy payment remains capped at £380. This is the first time that the maximum award has been lowered.
“Sexual Orientation Versus Religious Belief"
The Court of Appeal has handed down a decision relating to the conflict of rights that can arise relating to the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007 and the Religion or Belief Regulations 2003. In this case a Christian Registrar claimed that she was discriminated against and harassed by her local authority employer on the basis that she was required to carry out civil partnership ceremonies, which she believed were contrary to the will of God. The Court of Appeal has held that the employee had no right to insist that she was not allocated such duties, and that requiring the employee to conduct such ceremonies was not discriminatory. The Court of Appeal held that the prohibition of discrimination under the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007 took precedence over any right that an employee has by virtue of their religion or belief under the Religion or Belief Regulations 2003 (save for limited circumstances).
"Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003"
“A recent decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal has illustrated how widely the Tribunals will define what is meant by a “philosophical belief” for the purposes of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. In this recent case, it was decided that a belief in man made climate change, and the alleged resulting moral imperatives, was capable, if genuinely held, of amounting to a philosophical belief.
“Changes to the National Minimum Wage"
With effect from 1st October 2009 the national minimum wage will be increased as follows:
Standard adult rate, from £5.73 to £5.80
Development rate, from £4.77 to £4.83
Young workers’ rate, from £3.53 to £3.57
Accommodation offset rate, from £4.46 to £4.51
Also from 1st October 2009 employers will be prohibited from counting service charges, tips and gratuities processed through their payrolls towards the payment of the national minimum wage.
Reclaiming Holidays Lost Due to Sickness
The European Court of Justice has decided that a period of illness whilst on holiday cannot count towards the minimum period of paid annual leave to which workers are entitled by virtue of the Working Time Regulations.
In the case being decided by the European Court of Justice, the employee had suffered an accident two weeks before his planned holiday. The injury debilitated the employee for six weeks, and therefore, his period of sick leave overlapped entirely with the period the employee had booked off as holiday. The employee attempted to re-book his holiday, but the employer refused.
The European Court of Justice stated that the purpose of paid annual leave was to provide the employee with periods of relaxation and leisure. The purpose of sick leave was to allow an employee to recover from being ill. Therefore, if a worker decides not to take annual leave during a period of illness, he must be granted a replacement holiday period, to ensure that he is not deprived of the opportunity for relaxation and leisure.
Failure to Redeploy on Redundancy Can Amount to Age Discrimination
In a recent case the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that an employee being made redundant does suffer age discrimination, if an employer fails to redeploy the employee, where there is suitable alternative employment, but the employer’s motive for failing to redeploy the employee was a wish to avoid the employee becoming entitled to an early retirement pension. This case therefore warns against dismissing employees in order to prevent an entitlement to a benefit which is age related.
Six Months of Maternity Leave to be Available to Father
As has been widely reported in the press, the Government has announced a consultation in relation to new mothers being able to transfer some of their maternity leave entitlement to the father. It is proposed that where a mother has maternity leave outstanding in the second six months of a child’s life, she will be able to transfer up to six months maternity leave to the father. Up to three months of the transferred maternity leave will be paid at the same rate as statutory maternity pay, providing the leave is taken during the mother’s 39 week maternity pay period.
It is intended that these changes will take effect in April 2010. A period of consultation will now follow.
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