Agency Workers: A temporary challenge

Suzanne Horne analyses the key issues for employment lawyers raised by the new protections for agency workers coming into force next month ‘Agency workers will be entitled to access facilities and information on job vacancies from day one of their assignment. However, to qualify for the other rights, they must work 12 calendar weeks in …
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Changing Terms And Conditions: Going down

Kate Barker and Jo Broadbent examine the use of dismissal and re-engagement on less pay as a way of avoiding redundancies ‘Tribunals will adopt the wrong approach if they set the hurdle too high in determining whether an employer’s reasons for a change justify subsequent dismissals.’ In these troubled economic times employers are continuing to …
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Right To Be Accompanied: New guidance on legal representation

Most employees will not be entitled to a lawyer at disciplinary hearings following an important Supreme Court ruling, reports Laura Kearsley ‘The employer should try to accommodate the chosen representative unless they would prejudice the hearing or create a conflict of interest.’ Employees’ right to be accompanied at formal disciplinary and grievance meetings is well …
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Surveillance At Work: Watching the detectives

Employers need to take care when monitoring employees or hiring private investigators to gather evidence about their activities, warn David Green and Caroline Buckley ‘More sophisticated technology makes it easier for employers to investigate what their employees are doing, but they do not have an unfettered right to monitor individuals’ activities.’ In a recent case, …
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Religious Discrimination: Weighing workers’ rights against operational needs

Preventing a Muslim employee from leaving a site he was guarding to attend Friday prayers has been found to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, explains Bob Fahy ‘In Cherfi v G4S Security Service Ltd, the EAT did not seem to hold the tribunal to a particularly rigorous standard when it came …
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International Labour Law: Acting global, thinking local

Russell Brimelow, Gemma Chubb and Rachel Rooksby give their tips on how to manage a cross-border workforce successfully ‘If an employer managing a multinational workforce remembers one thing, it should be that Europe’s myriad of employment laws is like its flags – different from country to country.’ Inevitably, the international labour market has changed significantly …
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Whistleblowing: Uncovering misconduct

Caroline Stroud and Lara Zellick show why organisations need to encourage employees to disclose malpractice as part of their anti-corruption procedures ‘“Whistleblowing” describes the situation where an employee raises a concern about malpractice or wrongdoing within an organisation.’ Whistleblowing is once again moving up the corporate agenda in the UK as a result of the …
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