In Devon PCT v Readman, Mrs Readman was a community matron at Devon Primary Care Trust. Her role was focused on managing community and district nursing in a small community hospital which had only 12 beds.
At the other end of the pay spectrum, Chris Jarvis, an intern at Sony, successfully negotiated a £4,600 settlement for unpaid wages during his three month internship. Mr Jarvis said that instead of shadowing a Sony employee, he was working as a tester for the games department and therefore was entitled to minimum wage.. Sony unsuccessfully asked Mr Jarvis to sign a gagging order.
In Park Cakes Ltd v Shumba, four employees worked for a company within the Northern Foods Group until they TUPE transferred to the Vision Group. They were later made redundant and brought a claim for enhanced redundancy payments (equal to double the statutory package plus a lump sum payment of £600). They argued this on the basis that:
The European Court of Justice has been asked to decide a mothers’ right to maternity leave if she has a baby through a surrogacy arrangement. Two cases have been referred to the ECJ and the Advocate Generals (advisers for the ECJ) have offered conflicting opinions. Such opinions are usually adopted as final judgments by the ECJ but in this scenario only one can be.
The UK has launched a legal challenge with the European Court of Justice against the new rules capping bankers’ bonuses to the equivalent of one year’s salary or two years with shareholders’ approval.
In Blackburn v Aldi Stores Ltd, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that an employer’s failure to provide an impartial grievance procedure could breach the implied term of ‘trust and confidence’ and form the basis of a constructive dismissal claim.
Mr Benali worked as a chef at a Kosher bakery. In 2007-08, he was absent from work for a year as a result of his disability. On his return to work, a dispute arose with his employers over reasonable adjustments to his duties and he issued disability discrimination proceedings which were later settled. However, the requests for adjustments continued and his employers’ attitude toward him ‘hardened’.
Ms Little worked as a full time sales executive for Richmond Pharmacology. Richmond required all its sales executives to work full time to provide high customer service.
Obesity does not, of itself, render someone disabled and trigger a duty to make reasonable adjustments on the part of an employer. However, if as a result of someone’s obesity there are substantial and long term effects on an employees’ ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (such as lack of mobility) this could mean that an employee is deemed “disabled” pursuant to the Equality Act legislation.
What is interesting about this case – HMRC v Whiteley – is not the judgement but the guidance given by the Employment Appeal Tribunal relating to disabled employees who exceed the number of days permitted under a sickness absence policy.
The ACAS guide on settlement agreements recommends that employers allow employees a minimum of 10 calendar days to consider a settlement agreement and to receive legal advice. That is a lot longer than many employers would want to give staff, so the question is can this guidance be ignored?
In July 2013, the European Court of Justice in Herron v Parkwood Leisure held that employees who TUPE transfer to a new organisation cannot benefit from collectively agreed terms where such terms are agreed after the date of the transfer and where the new employer is not a party to those collective negotiations.
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