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MacNairs + Wilson

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Latest updates & successes from our Employment department

June was another busy month for our employment department, with discrimination issues again coming to the fore.

Firstly, though, we have an Appeal pending before the Employment Appeal Tribunal after the EAT approved our application for arguments regarding procedural irregularity at the Employment Tribunal to proceed to a full hearing. This case has potentially important ramifications as to how much control Employment Judges should exert over the presentation of cases before them. The hearing itself will take some time but we will keep you advised of progress.

In other cases, we attended at the offices of one of our employer clients in Midlothian to deliver training to senior staff on Retirement issues and Age Discrimination. It is possible to maintain a Retirement Policy in the workplace but this is a tricky field and such a policy may well be regarded as discriminatory. The better approach is to deal with all staff members equally and fairly through the Capability Procedure, thus avoiding any future expense incurred through the Employment Tribunal. If you wish to arrange a presentation to staff or managers on any employment issue please contact us.

Also last month we have taken on a  new claim for pregnancy related discrimination after an agency worker was told she was no longer required due to sickness absence brought about by pregnancy. This is a dangerous area for employers and potentially one that exposes them to large claims. We are confident this case will proceed and if not settled by the employers then we anticipate success before the Employment Tribunal. These cases raise a number of interesting legal points regarding not only sex discrimination but also the rights of Agency Workers and responsibility of employers for them.

More generally the Government have introduced new rules limiting claims for backdated holiday pay following a court judgement last year explaining how such pay was to be calculated, and have announced a review of Tribunal fees. Our view is that such a review is long overdue and the current system prevents access to justice for a significant number of employees. We will await the outcome of the review with interest!

Contact our Employment lawyers in Paisley & Glasgow

If you have a grievance against your employer, we can help. Our expert employment lawyers provide expert employment law advice in Paisley, Glasgow and surrounding areas. Contact us today to find out how we can help.

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