The Employment Appeals Tribunal has upheld a 2006 ruling that female care workers employed by Cumbria County Council (CCC) should receive back pay equivalent to bonuses paid to male workers.

About 1,500 care workers are now a step closer to sharing up to £50 million in equality compensation.

However, the CCC, which has set aside £21 million to meet the costs, was given the go-ahead to argue that market rates define how much staff were paid. It will make the claim at another tribunal, likely to be held in Newcastle in 2008.

Councillor Jack Richardson, cabinet member for equal pay and equal value, said: “The ruling has opened the door for the county council to establish that market rates were instrumental in setting higher pay awards for some employees compared with others.

“This fundamental point of law means that no equal pay claims will be settled until a future tribunal, to which the matter is being referred, examines this issue in depth.”

But Unison, the public services union, claimed the decision would pave the way for thousands of cases to be settled. General secretary Dave Prentis commented: “The council should face up to their responsibilities, stop wasting time and more council taxpayers’ money on costly legal arguments and give these women the money owing to them.”

Source: BBC News, November 13, 2007

Booklets for employers and employees have been launched to help people with rheumatoid arthritis cope in the workplace.

Launched by the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) the booklets aim to help people living with the disabling disease stay in work longer.

The booklets are in response to a survey of people with rheumatoid arthritis which revealed that:

• nearly 30 per cent had given up work because of the disease; over 25 per cent within one year of diagnosis and over half within six years of diagnosis;
• 86 per cent of employed respondents had either already experienced or anticipated experiencing key barriers to remaining in employment;

• nearly 38 per cent felt that it had an impact on their career progression;

• 50 per cent of those in employment said they had been offered some support to help them make changes to working conditions to make their work easier.

However, 20 per cent found employers unhelpful or very unhelpful, and 13 per cent said that their employer had wanted them to leave once they became aware of the long-term health problem.

The booklet provides information about the disease and how employers can support people in the workplace.

Source: Onrec.com, October 29, 2007

Millions more parents would have the right to request flexible working under new measures being considered by the Government.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has asked Sainsbury’s human resources director, Imelda Walsh, to lead an independent review to determine how the current right to request flexible working can be extended to parents of older children.

“Families are the framework of our lives and matter not just to individuals but to our communities, the economy and society as a whole,” said Minister for Women and Equalities Harriet Harman. “We have already built a strong foundation of support for families through the right for parents with children under six to request flexible work, but as any parent knows, older children can need just as much support and guidance which is why we are exploring this idea.”

CIPD employment relations adviser Mike Emmott welcomed the review but called for flexible working rights to be extended to all employees to avoid creating divisions in the workplace.

“Many enlightened employers already allow employees to work flexibly regardless of their family status. An extension of the right to request to all workers would level the playing field, without compelling employers to offer flexible working where this is incompatible with business needs,” he said.

Source: BERR press release, November 6, 2007

A construction firm has denied discriminating against an Asian job applicant who was denied an interview but given one when he reapplied using a Welsh pseudonym.

Qamar Mohammed Malik, 48, applied for a £33,000-a-year quality inspector’s job at the Amec Group’s waste water plant in Treforest, Wales but his CV was rejected without an interview. He then re-applied under a fictitious Welsh name, Rhyddir Aled Lloyd-Hilbert, and was granted an interview, despite the bogus applicant being less well qualified.

At an employment tribunal Mike Hartwell, a catchment manager at the Amec Group, rejected any notion of racial discrimination in the recruitment process.

“The difference with Mr Lloyd-Hilbert that he indicated on his CV that he was looking to move to Wales,” he said.

The tribunal has reserved judgment until a later date.

Source: Guardian, November 7, 2007

London employment tribunal has rejected a claim that German bank Dresdner Kleinwort fired an executive last year because of his nationality.

Malcolm Perry, an Australian, had gone to the tribunal seeking almost £10 million in compensation and alleging that his former employer pursued a discriminatory hiring and firing policy designed to fill senior management positions with Germans and German-speakers.

However, the Central London Employment Tribunal has unanimously dismissed Mr Perry’s case saying “he did not suffer race discrimination on the grounds that he was not of German nationality nor of German origin nor able to speak German”.

On the subject of alleged “Germanification” following the merger, the tribunal noted that in the bank’s London office the changes in the ratio of German to non-German managing directors “did not establish facts from which it could be inferred that there was a culture of less favourable treatment of non-Germans in the retention and recruitment of managing directors”.

The tribunal did, however, rule that Mr Perry had been unfairly dismissed because he was not considered for alternative positions after his existing role was removed in a company restructuring.

Mr Perry is entitled to damages for unfair dismissal. The exact amount, which is capped at around £65,000, will be decided at a subsequent hearing.

Mr Perry said that he was disappointed at the tribunal’s ruling but had “no regrets whatsoever about bringing the case”.

Dresdner Kleinwort said it was pleased with the decision reiterating its earlier statement that it was an “equal opportunity employer”.

Source: The Guardian, November 1, 2007

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has welcomed the Government’s recommendations on union reps, which included suggesting that ACAS should consider ways to strengthen its code of practice outlining the time and resources that employers grant reps to do their jobs.

TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “Beefing up the ACAS Code would prove a great help to the small but significant minority of union reps whose employers refuse to give them paid time-off to train or make it impossible for them to carry out their union duties.

“ACAS needs to find ways to strengthen its Code so that it reflects the modern world of work. This would help give union reps the time-off they need to train, represent their colleagues and work with their employers to run safe, well-trained workplaces where staff enjoy a good work/ life balance.”

Source: TUC press release, November 5, 2007

A survey by the Employers’ Forum on Disability (EFD) indicates that over 90 per cent of UK employers may be putting themselves at risk under disability discrimination laws.

The EFD questioned businesses, between them employing around two million people, and found that only 8 per cent have an effective reasonable adjustment policy in place. Reasonable adjustments, required under the Disability Discrimination Act, give disabled employees the right to adjustments that allow them to work as effectively as their non-disabled colleagues.

“Employers must recognise the legal risks involved in not making adjustments and they must ensure that adjustments they do make for disabled staff are monitored effectively,” said Simon Minty, director of diversity at consultants Minty & Friend.

“Most importantly, this will enable all disabled people to work as effectively as their colleagues.”

Susan Scott-Parker, chief executive at the EFD, said: “The results of the Disability Standard are clear – employers are still not doing enough to ensure reasonable adjustments for their disabled staff.”

Source: Employers’ Forum on Disability, November 2007

The gender pay gap is at its lowest since records began, Office for National Statistics figures reveal.

The latest statistics show the gap between women’s median hourly pay and men’s now stands at 12.6 per cent, compared with a gap of 12.8 per cent recorded in April 2006. The median hourly rate for men went up 2.8 per cent to £11.96, while the rate for women increased by just over 3 per cent to £10.46. The pay divide between top and bottom earners also narrowed slightly in the year to April 2007.

Dr John Philpott, chief economist at CIPD, said he was encouraged by the figures but stressed that further progress was needed.

“It is encouraging that the gender pay gap has narrowed on both a median and mean average comparison.

“However, a closer look at the figures suggest no clear trend and if anything indicates that progress in narrowing the gap has stalled since the early part of the decade.

This strengthens the imperative for both government and employers to work harder together to promote genuine gender equality in pay.”

Source: ONS press release, November 7, 2007

More than 1,700 public-sector workers have been disciplined or dismissed for misuse of email or the internet since 2004, according to figures obtained by the Guardian newspaper.

Among the offences identified by employers were accessing pornography or other inappropriate material in the workplace, sending or forwarding offensive emails, and the excessive use of email and the Internet, particularly social networking sites such as Facebook.

Of the 1,722 workers disciplined for such offences, 132 were dismissed, 41 resigned, 868 were given formal warnings and 686 received less serious warnings or minor reprimands.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) called on employers to provide greater clarity in their rules regarding Internet and email use.

“Social networking at work is a recent problem and it’s growing at a phenomenal rate,” a spokesperson said. “But employers are often not setting a standard as to what level of Internet use is acceptable.”

Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology at Lancaster University, said that the increase in personal use of the Internet at work was attributable to the UK’s long-hours culture.

“Employers have created this culture,” he said. “It is natural for people to have to use work computers for organising their personal life.”

Source: Guardian, November 12, 2007

A 20-year-old woman who was dismissed from her post as a membership secretary at a London club for being “too young” has won her claim for discrimination on grounds of age.

Megan Thomas claimed that she was told by her employers at the Eight Member Club that she was not old enough to deal with club members. The case is thought to be the first of its kind to have been brought under the Employment Equality (Age) Act 2006.

Lawrence Davies of Equal Justice solicitors, who represented Ms Thomas, commented: “Young workers get a raw deal in today’s society. This is the first time that the courts have said age discrimination adversely affects the young and young-looking as well as the old.

“We would hope that more young workers exercise their employment rights.”

However, a spokesperson for the Eight Member Club denied that Ms Thomas’s dismissal was related to her age.

“It’s a very strange ruling because this is a young person’s business and many of the waiters and waitresses working here are the same age or even younger than Megan,” the spokesperson said. “She had finished her six months’ probation and had made some mistakes, so we decided to end her employment.”

The club’s owners plan to appeal against the tribunal’s verdict.

Source: Independent, November 12, 2007