A paper identified myths and misconceptions surrounding equality and diversity in the workplace. Common misconceptions included the belief that a disabled person could not be dismissed, while someone who had been on sick leave for a certain length of time could be dismissed automatically. Employers lacked detailed knowledge of their responsibilities towards pregnant women, and there was growing anecdotal evidence of employers being unwilling to recruit women of childbearing age. Employers found it particularly difficult to confront race discrimination. The most common misconception about age regulations was that they applied only to older workers.
Source: Sarah Podro, Back to Basics: Acas experience of equality and diversity in the workplace, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (020 7210 3613)
Links: Paper | Personnel Today report
Date: 2006-Dec
The government announced a review (by Michael Gibbons) of the options for simplifying and improving all aspects of employment dispute resolution.
Source: Press release 7 December 2006, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5000)
Links: DTI press release | Hansard | TUC press release | CBI press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2006-Dec
A report highlighted the problems encountered by businesses as a result of employment regulations. It made specific recommendations for simplifying the law and reducing the burden on business, without impacting on individuals' rights.
Source: Lightening the Load: The need for employment law simplification, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: CBI press release
Date: 2006-Oct
The European Court of Justice ruled that the United Kingdom government's guidance on rest breaks (requiring a minimum gap of 11 hours between working days, and a weekend break of one day plus 11 hours) was incompatible with the working time directive. The guidelines were liable to render the right meaningless, because they did not oblige employers to ensure that workers actually took the minimum rest period laid down.
Source: Commission v United Kingdom (Social policy) [2006] EUECJ C-484/04, European Court of Justice (00 352 43031)
Links: Text of judgement | TUC press release | Times report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Sep
The Law Lords ruled that an employer could be held vicariously liable, and ordered to pay damages, for harassment of one worker by another - as long as the bullying was closely connected with the duties of the job. Workers did not have to prove their employers knew or should have known they were being bullied, or to prove that the bullying caused them a recognized psychiatric illness.
Source: Majrowski v Guy's and St. Thomas' National Health Service Trust, UKHL 34 (Session 2005-06), House of Lords Judicial Office (020 7219 3111)
Links: Text of judgement | Guardian report | FT report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2006-Jul
A trade union report said that temporary workers too often earned less than permanent colleagues, were denied access to a pension scheme, and had poorer annual holiday and sick pay entitlement.
Source: Working on the Edge: A report on agency workers, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: TUC press release
Date: 2006-Jun
The government published the first large-scale official survey of unfair treatment, perceived discrimination, bullying, and sexual harassment in the workplace. The survey involved face-to-face interviews with 3,936 employees across Great Britain, between November 2005 and January 2006. Around 1.7 million (6.9 per cent) of employees said they had personally been treated unfairly at work in the previous two years.
Source: Heidi Grainger and Grant Fitzner, Fair Treatment at Work Survey 2005, Employment Relations Research Series 63, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Summary | Observer report
Date: 2006-Jun
A trade union report said that many of the advances in workplace rights that employees took for granted would not have become law in the United Kingdom if it had not been for the country's membership of the European Union.
Source: Europe and Your Rights at Work, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: TUC press release
Date: 2006-Jun
An official advisory body published a discussion paper on reform of the employment tribunal system. It examined the impact of the 2004 dispute resolution reforms on employment tribunal claims, and addressed wider issues such as the increasing complexity of the process. It said that the best way of reducing the number of employment tribunal cases was by focusing on improving employment relations solutions in the workplace.
Source: Rachel Suff, New Rules, New Challenges: Acas? role in the employment tribunal system, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (08457 474747)
Links: Paper | Acas press release
Date: 2006-May
An article examined the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, which revoked the TUPE Regulations 1981. The new regulations extended protection for employees in outsourcing situations; clarified the law on transfer-connected dismissals and changes to employment conditions; provided for the supply by transferors of employee liability information; and relaxed the reduced protection in insolvency situations.
Source: John McMullen, 'An analysis of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006', Industrial Law Journal, Volume 35 Number 2
Links: Abstract | Regulations
Date: 2006-May
An article said that there was limited evidence of government commitment to the traditional conception of the 'good employer'. There was also little sign of the public sector being used to promote a coherent model of employment practice to private sector employers.
Source: Helen Bewley, 'Raising the standard? The regulation of employment, and public sector employment policy', British Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 44 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-May
An article examined the potential for trade unions to play a role in enforcing statutory employment rights, thereby demonstrating the efficacy of representation to potential members, and augmenting the collective bargaining agenda.
Source: Trevor Colling, 'What space for unions on the floor of rights? Trade unions and the enforcement of statutory individual employment rights', Industrial Law Journal, Volume 35 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-May
An article examined the record of Labour governments over the period 1997-2005 in the areas of individual and collective employment regulation and the promotion of partnership. Far from marking a radical break with the past, Labour?s industrial relations programme lacked consistency and coherence.
Source: David Nash, 'Recent industrial relations developments in the United Kingdom: continuity and change under New Labour 1997-2005', Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 48 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-May
A study examined employees' general awareness of the scope of their employment rights. Almost two-thirds of respondents said they felt either well informed (51 per cent) or very well informed (15 per cent) about their employment rights. Groups that might be expected to be more vulnerable at work had lower levels of awareness and knowledge about their rights at work than other workers.
Source: Jo Casebourne, Jo Regan, Fiona Neathey and Siobhan Tuohy, Employment Rights at Work: Survey of Employees 2005, Employment Relations Research Series 51, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Apr
A Member of Parliament introduced a Bill aimed at ensuring that employees were part of the decision-making process during the administrative phase of a company and prior to liquidation.
Source: Notification of Redundancy Bill, Jim Cunningham MP, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard
Date: 2006-Apr
The Law Lords ruled that part-time workers should not to be discriminated against over pension rights and sick pay compared to full-time workers.
Source: Matthews and others v. Kent and Medway Towns and Fire Authority and others, UKHL 8 (Session 2005-06), House of Lords Judicial Office (020 7219 3111)
Links: Text of judgement | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Mar
The European Court of Justice ruled that the practice of paying workers for their holiday entitlement instead of giving them leave was illegal.
Source: Robinson-Steele v. R.D. Retail Services Ltd, Clarke v. Frank Staddon Ltd, and Caulfield, Caulfield and Barnes v. Hanson Clay Products Ltd, European Court of Justice (00 352 43031)
Links: Text of judgement
Date: 2006-Mar