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Are quotas imposed by the EU the best way to increase the number of female directors, asks Stephen Levinson Research by McKinsey & Company, carried out in 2007, claimed that companies with more women on their boards outperformed their rivals, with a 42% higher return on sales.The UK is at war with Europe, again. This …
Continue reading "Women On Boards: The justice commissioner and the men in dark suits"
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Kevin Palmer considers the potential impact of the government’s plans to repeal three key anti-discrimination provisions 45,000 and 60,000 employer hours per year are being assigned to completing discrimination questionnaires. In the government’s view, this hinders business market freedom, with valuable man hours wasted on potentially spurious claims. Following separate reviews of equality legislation under …
Continue reading "Equality Act: Red tape versus rights"
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The Court of Appeal has held that LLP members lose employment rights but an independent contractor surgeon is ‘a worker’, reports David Ludlow A worker is ‘to some extent at least subordinate to the employer’ whereas ‘the partnership concept is the antithesis of subordination’. Employment lawyers and tribunals regularly deal with cases in which the …
Continue reading "Employment Status: Members and partners are left whistling"
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Catherine Taylor and Dominic Holmes look at some important lessons to be learned from a recent decision on team moves CEF based its case of unlawful advantage on a claim for conspiracy to injure. The High Court determined that there was no evidence to support conspiracy to injure, which is a very serious tort that …
Continue reading "Employee Competition: Getting restrictions right"
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Companies investigating fraud in both the UK and US need to be aware of key differences in local legislation, explain Ellen Temperton, James Storke and Jim Hart This article focuses on three areas critical to an investigation spanning the UK and US – whistleblower protection, privacy and data protection rules, and privilege. According to the …
Continue reading "Anti-Corruption: Conducting cross-border investigations"
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Christopher Hitchins and Kathryn Pickard examine the government’s scheme to encourage more workers to save for their retirement An employer must not offer a financial inducement (for example a higher salary or one-off bonus) to jobholders to encourage them to opt out of auto-enrolment. This October marked the start of mandatory pensions auto-enrolment for the …
Continue reading "Pensions: An employment lawyer’s guide to auto-enrolment"
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Benedict Gorner analyses the government’s proposals to reduce unfair dismissal awards, introduce a code on settlement agreements and simplify the tribunal rules It is rare for a tribunal to award compensation of more than a year’s pay and in fact the median award for unfair dismissal in 2011/2012 was only £4,560. On 14 September, the …
Continue reading "Employment Law Reform: Devil in the detail"
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Adrian Martin discusses whether the introduction of tribunal fees could be a breach of the right to a fair trial under the European Convention of Human Rights The government maintains its position that the remission system would be suitable to protect access to justice for those who cannot afford to pay the fees. In recent …
Continue reading "Tribunal Fees: Fair way to share costs or breach of human rights?"
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A Court of Appeal ruling has added to confusion about whether it is acceptable for departing employees to prepare to enter into competition with their employer, argues Gary Freer In British Midland Tool Ltd v Midland International Tooling [2003], fiduciaries were said to be required to disclose any activity, actual or threatened, which damages the …
Continue reading "Fiduciary Duties: Competing interests"
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Susie Al-Qassab considers the consequences of three recent decisions in the EAT on the mutuality of obligation test The fact that the claimants worked rostered hours to which they could object if they posed them a problem, did not preclude mutuality of obligation. To establish employee status and enjoy the rights and protections only available …
Continue reading "Employment Status: Keeping it casual"
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