Employment Briefing 11/07/2024

Employee who took secret pictures of a female colleague was unfairly sacked

This case highlights the importance of carrying out a thorough and consistent disciplinary process, with the Tribunal considering three critical issues in determining the fairness of the dismissal: (i) The reason for the dismissal, (ii) the reasonableness of the investigation and if the decision to dismiss was within the range of reasonable responses and (iii) mitigating factors (consideration of a previous good record, the impact of dismissal on the employee’s personal life, and whether the employer appropriately weighed these factors).

You can read more in this HR Grapevine article.

Standby or on-call: are your employees working or resting?

Working time includes any period where a worker is working, at their employer’s disposal and carrying out activities or duties. Time spent on-call may or may not satisfy this definition.

Read more here.

Who’s who in the new Labour Government

You can find a full list of the new Labour cabinet here: Cabinet – The Labour Party

Labour’s plans for Employment Law reforms

We were joined at AoC Learning Week on Monday by Irwin Mitchell who outlined some of the key issues we need to be aware of concerning employment law reforms in the coming months. There will (there needs to) be a lot more detail to come, but some of the headlines include:

Trade unions and collective consultation

• Repealing the Minimum Service (Strikes) Act
• Reversing changes made under the Trade Union Act 2016 (which increased the turnout needed for ballots, limited mandates for strike action to six months and required two weeks' notice to be given of a ballot for industrial action)
• Simplifying the process for union recognition and lowering thresholds which would include the introduction of a new duty to inform all new employees of their right to join a union regularly as well as putting this in their contract of employment

Redundancy and TUPE

• The trigger point of collective redundancy will be determined by the number of people impacted across the business rather than in one workplace
• Strengthening the rights and protections for workers under TUPE
• A proposal for the “biggest wave of insourcing public services in a generation”

Employment contracts and worker status

• A single status of worker for employment law purposes
• Banning the practice of “Fire and Rehire”
• Banning “exploitative” zero hours contracts – giving workers the right to have a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, based on a 12-week averaging period

Pay

• Changing the remit of the Low Pay Commission to consider the cost of living when setting rates
• Removing age bands
• Ensure workers who work across multiple sites receive NMW for travel time
• Strengthening statutory sick pay

New rights and proposals

• Giving workers day-one rights in respect of unfair dismissal, parental leave and sick pay
• The right to “switch off”
• Extending the time to bring an ET claim from 3 to 6 months
• Establishing a single enforcement body to inspect workplaces and bring civil proceedings where employment rights have been breached
• Extending the proactive duty to protect employees from sexual harassment (already coming in October 2024)

Flexible working and family-friendly

• Making flexible working the “default” position
• They are keen to enable working parents to be able to limit their work to term-time contracts
• Making it unlawful to dismiss a pregnant woman and for six months after returning to work (subject to exceptions - presumably a genuine redundancy situation)
• Consideration of introducing paid carers leave
• Expanding bereavement leave

Equality

• Publication and implementation of action plans to close Gender Pay Gaps
• Introduction of mandatory equality and disability pay gap reporting (where 250 staff plus)
• Introduction of menopause action plans (250 staff plus)
• Encouraging employers to sign up to the Dying to Work Charter
• Implementing a regulatory and enforcement unit for equal pay with trade union involvement

AoC HR and Employment Law Conference – 15 October 2024

This year’s conference will again take place in October, on Tuesday 15 October 2024, and will be held in the same venue as last year, Holiday Inn in Bloomsbury, London. We really hope you can make it and a huge thank you to those of you who have already booked. You can find out more here.

Confirmed speakers so far include:

• Hayfa Mohdzaini, Senior Research Advisor – Data Tech and AI at CIPD who will discuss what AI means for the HR function.
• Charlotte Axon, Lead People Scientist at Tailored Thinking who will explore why reasonable adjustments don’t go far enough and how you can use job crafting to enhance employee engagement and retention.
• Annamaria Pellegrino, Psychology-based Wellbeing Consultant, Trainer, and Coach who will share practical strategies to boost your resilience and productivity and how to support your team’s wellbeing.
• Jenny Arrowsmith, Head of Education, Irwin Mitchell who will take a deep dive into the upcoming changes in employment law.

AoC contact

For further information about anything in this briefing please contact Jo Taylor at jo.taylor@aoc.co.uk