Blog
From garage to unicorn – Employment law lessons for scaling tech teams
Catherine Bourne
7 February 2011
Tinkering around the edges of Employment Tribunal reform
Last week the government unveiled a consultation paper on “Resolving Work Place Disputes”. This is supposed to be a show case of the government’s ideas to reform Employment Tribunals and ease burdens on employers. There are many points in the document but nearly all of them are a bit of tinkering around the edges and they are very far from an overhaul of the system.
2 February 2011
Employment Watch Winter 2011 - New Year, new regulations
Despite the May 2010 election of a coalition government with a stated commitment to lessen the regulatory burden on employers, 2011 promises to be a busy year for HR practitioners and employment lawyers as they prepare to absorb a whole raft of changes. Below we outline the highlights of the coming year’s legislative agenda that could significantly impact the way employers deal with their staff:
2 February 2011
Employment Watch Winter 2011 - Dismissal for raising “false” discrimination claims is not necessarily victimisation
Under the old, pre-Equality Act 2010, discrimination legislation, and also under the Equality Act itself, it is unlawful victimisation for an employer to dismiss, or subject to other detriment, an employee who has performed a “protected act”. “Protected acts” can include an employee alleging unlawful discrimination.
2 February 2011
Employment Watch Winter 2011 - Legal costs in Employment Tribunals
The normal rule in English litigation is that the losing party bears the winning party’s costs. However, in Employment Tribunal cases, each party usually only pays its own legal costs, win or lose. Employers have often complained that this encourages bogus claims in which employers have to pay their own legal costs defending completely unmeritorious proceedings.
2 February 2011
Employment Watch Winter 2011 - Caste discrimination in the pipeline?
A Government commissioned report into the impact of caste discrimination in the UK by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has found that there is some evidence of discrimination against people of lower castes amongst British communities with roots in the Indian sub-continent.