Blog
Rayner my parade! The importance of specialist advice.
Jemma Brimblecombe
2 June 2014
How far we have come with maternity and leave, and how far there is to go
In recent discussions about making Heathrow operational 24 hours a day, we were reminded of previous comments from Mr El-Baker, the Chief Executive of Qatar Airlines, who reportedly said that female cabin crew are banned from getting married during the first 5 years of their employment with the purpose of stopping them becoming pregnant. Mr El-Baker said, "we used to allow this and a lot of people started to get married and then two to three months later they were pregnant so we were losing a lot of trained people that we had then to stop them flying. We had to put a stop to this. But after five years they can get married to anybody they want."
29 May 2014
Legal Update: Statutory Holiday Pay should include both basic salary and average commission payments
In the recent case of Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd and others C539/12 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that salespeople are entitled to receive average commission payments, on top of their basic pay, in respect of periods of statutory annual leave. These holiday payments should be calculated to include the commission the worker would have earned, if they had attended work during that period.
13 May 2014
Zero Hours Contracts - a political football, but what is the reality for employers and employees?
The phrase “zero hours contract” (ZHC) has been occupying an increasing number of media column inches in recent weeks. ZHCs have been vilified, defended, consulted upon and even featured in the Scottish independence referendum debate. This blog looks into the specifics around ZHC’s and considers potential solutions to the issues surrounding them… it could be argued that ZHCs are incorrectly named and a “Variable Hours Contract (VHC)” would be more reflective of reality.
13 May 2014
Unconscious bias and discrimination in the recruitment process – pitfalls and tips
The Bank of Queensland has made a splash in the news recently, following its statement that it will take identifying information including name, age, gender and address, out of CVs before their recruitment process for senior and executive roles begins. The purpose of this policy is to attract more women to senior roles and to avoid unconscious bias in recruitment.
13 May 2014
Legal update: Admissibility of evidence from disciplinary and grievance meetings at Tribunal Hearings
In Punjab National Bank (International) Limited and others v Gosain UKEAT/0003/14, the EAT held that covert recordings of public and private conversations at disciplinary and grievance meetings were admissible in evidence, and could be considered by the Tribunal when it came to determining the case at full hearing.
