New Discipline and Grievance Complaints Procedures
Employment law is about to undergo quite a radical change, with an amendment to the existing Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/752) which are currently in force. This law is in place to establish statutory procedures that must be followed if and when a grievance complaint is raised by an employee to an employer.
Old law used to extend employee protection from the “office bully”
Bullying and harassment should not have to be tolerated by anyone. The law has developed significantly over the last 40 years to protect individuals at work from discrimination based on sex, race, disability, religion and, most recently, age. Further recent developments now mean that the days of the “office bully” are now numbered.
The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 was enacted to stop stalking and other forms of criminal harassment. For nearly 10 years, the law was on the statute books but was ignored by employment and matrimonial lawyers. Following a series of high-profile cases, new life has been breathed into the act. The act can now be used to punish an office bully or even a “mother-in-law from hell!”
Given the current financial climate, it may not have been the best time for the law to change regarding statutory payments for redundancy. With the economy already suffering an increasing number of job losses week on week, there are fears that this new increase to statutory redundancy payments may result in an even sharper rise in the number of people being made unemployed.
Redundancy pay is calculated on the basis of age and length of service. The number of weeks pay is multiplied by the current statutory rate. The law currently states that an employer is obliged to pay employees up to £330 per week if they are made redundant after two years of continuous service. There are further criteria that are taken into consideration which an employer has a statutory duty to be mindful of.
These are:
Employees under the age of 22
Notwithstanding that criminal law specialist legal secretaries’ and PAs’ work diaries are hardly brimming with such enquiries from clients, this area of law still conjures up some of the strongest thoughts and opinions from all of us, no matter which side of the fence we choose to stand on over the issue. Indeed, it may be fair to state that this subject probably represents one of the most controversial issues that currently shrouds our legal system.
Civil Litigation Procedure - Part 2
In our last article on Civil Litigation, we outlined some of the history of the current litigation rules and what should be considered before a legal claim is issued. In this article, we will consider some of the steps that a Defendant can take when responding to a claim.
Avoidance is the best policy
Knowing your contractual rights and how to enforce them
A good knowledge of the law of contract may not seem very important in day-to-day life, but an awareness of your rights can help you to save your hard-earned cash. In England and Wales, we are lucky to have a wide range of statutory consumer rights that can protect you from unscrupulous shops or traders. We have considered below a few of your key rights and how you can enforce them. We have also outlined a recent expansion of consumer protection from unfair trading practices that came into force on 26 May 2008.
Faulty goods
Civil Litigation Procedure - Part 1
The Rules of Civil Litigation
The law is fundamentally about knowing what the rules are. Every area of law will have particular rules that must be followed. In litigation it is important to be familiar with the correct rules because if you are not, then inevitably your opponent (or the court itself) will be all too happy to point out the error of your ways! Worse still, if you make a major mistake, you may be liable to pay your opponent’s legal costs or even lose a case entirely.
A brave new world and what it means for you
People working in the property sector will now be familiar with the Land Registry's 'e-conveyancing' programme. Whether they know much about the specifics is another matter. The Land Registry's plan has been to phase in 'paperless conveyancing,' with 2008 and 2009 seeing the launch of a number of new features. A fully functional 'e-conveyance' system may not be available until 2010, but such a fundamental change to the process of buying and selling land was never going to happen overnight.
A Round Up of Recent Developments
With a new Employment Bill working it way through Parliament and expected to come into force in April 2009 we have focused on a few of the Bills main provisions. There have also been a number of recent developments in relation to protection from harassment at work.
The Employment Law Bill
DNA Proves a Hanged Man Was Innocent
‘It is one of the most notorious cases in British legal history, the story of an apparently mild-mannered doctor who poisoned and dismembered his showgirl wife, then fled across the Atlantic with his young lover – only to be caught after a sharp-eyed captain recognized him from the newspaper,’ writes Martin Hodgson in The Guardian of 17th October 2007.
Hodgson tells the story thus:
Dr Hawley Crippen was hanged in 1910, after an Old Bailey jury took just 27 minutes to find him guilty of murdering his wife, Cora, who had vanished earlier that year.
Nearly a century later, research appears to show that the evidence which sent Crippen to the gallows was mistaken: the human remains discovered under his London house could not be those of Cora.