Author: Chris Cook

In October 2011 the Government announced that the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims would be doubling. At this time, business secretary Vince Cable said that ’Businesses tell us that unfair dismissal rules are a major barrier to taking on more people’. However, at this time the government did not confirm whether it would affect existing employees (who may already have qualified for unfair dismissal rights) or just new starters.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has now explained that the aim of the policy is mainly to encourage recruitment and it does not believe that it is “appropriate or necessary to apply it to those already in work”.

The Government has confirmed that employees starting work before 6 April 2012 will be able to make unfair dismissal claims after one year’s service. The new two-year period of qualification will only apply to those who commence employment on or after 6 April 2012. As well as giving employers greater confidence to take new people on, it is also hoped to provide more time for employers and employees to resolve their difficulties as well as easing constraints on the employment tribunal process.

To read more Unfair Dismissal related articles, click here.

If you would like more information or advice relating to a specific matter, please do not hesitate to contact Chris Cook on 01727 798017 or by email at chris.cook@salaw.com or any member of the Employment Team.

© SA LAW 2012
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual case.

Author: Chris Cook

Michael Gove, Education Secretary, has recently announced that he wants to abandon rules that make it difficult to sack incompetent teachers.

The current situation is that Headteachers are only allowed to monitor teachers for three hours a year, and the process to dismiss a teacher can take at least 12 months, not to mention countless red tape.

Mr Gove is now introducing a requirement for teachers to be assessed every year against rigorous standards, and he also proposes to get rid of pages of ‘unnecessary’ documentation showing guidance on how to deal with staff who do not reach the required standard.

Between 2001 and 2011, only 17 of the 400,000 teachers in England were judged ‘incompetent’ by the General Teaching Council for England (and thereby prevented from applying for another job). With the new legislation, this would change as teachers would have to declare if they have been subject to capability measures.

Rather than taking a year, the whole procedure for dismissing a teacher should now take less than a school term.

As an additional measure of quality control, Mr Gove suggested that parents should go into classrooms to see for themselves the standard of teaching that their children are receiving.

We will have to watch and see if any changes or refinements are made to these proposals, and also observe the effect of these measures once they are implemented in schools.

SA Law’s dedicated Education team regularly assists and advises schools on all legal matters. To find out more email victoria.thomson@salaw.com

If you would like more information or advice relating to a specific matter, please do not hesitate to contact Chris Cook on 01727 798017 or by email at chris.cook@salaw.com or any member of the Education Team.

© SA LAW 2012
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual case.

Author: Chris Cook

More and more schools are now choosing to move away from Local Government control and are converting to academy status. The conversion process can prove complex and below we have listed some ‘Top Tips’ to assist you.

Advisors

Select your advisors carefully. Ask your nominated solicitor if they have contacts with local accountants, bankers and other professionals who you may need to use in the conversion process.

Communicate with staff

Staff will, naturally, be concerned about their own personal position in relation to the conversion. It is important to begin consulting with them as soon as possible, to take on board their comments and to keep them informed of any developments. It is also important to liaise with union representatives. During key stages of the process, it is good practice to issue written updates and also to respond to any individual staff queries in writing. If several staff members are raising the same query, consider issuing additional bulletins or updates to keep everyone fully informed.

Assess the trading position

Schools sometimes generate income from trading and/or from hiring out their premises. It is important to note that an academy is restricted as to which activities can be carried out. It may be necessary for a subsidiary company to carry out some of these instead, and you will need to arrange for such a company to be set up. Consider the position early on and keep all of your advisors informed.
Develop a Project Plan

Governors and headteachers need to have a very clear idea as to why the School is considering converting, have gathered as much information as possible (a useful source being from nearby schools which have already gone through the process) and have weighed up all the pros and cons. This will be crucial when submitting the Department for Education (DfE) application and when discussing the proposed project with the governors and teachers. It is also sensible to have a project plan and to include timescales and deadline dates to ensure everyone is working towards the same plan.

Equality Duty (Public Sector)

Governing bodies of schools have a “Public Sector Equality Duty”. During the consultation period, and when a governing body takes the final decision to convert to academy status, the governing body must have regard to the Duty and take steps to demonstrate it. You should consult your legal advisor about this.

Make Lists!

Get organised with title deeds, contracts and HR records

It is important to locate the School’s title deeds at an early stage in order to save time at later stages of the conversion process. Ensure the deeds are checked for any issues with the title.

The location of the title deeds will depend on who owns the land, and the category of the school. If the governing body owns the land, the deeds are likely to be held on the school’s premises or perhaps with a solicitor. Alternatively, if the Local Authority or another third party owns the freehold title, they are likely to be holding the deeds.

Again, to save time later on it is important to ensure copies of all contracts and funding agreements are to hand (for example, this could include lottery funding agreements, etc). These may need to be legally transferred to the Academy. It is also important to have a full staff list to hand and to check that the personnel records have been totally updated.

Insurance

Academies are obliged to procure their own insurance, including for land and buildings. This has to be in place from midnight on the day of conversion. The money will usually be refunded by the DfE but Academies will need to demonstrate that the arrangement is good value for money. Options to consider using include the local authority or a framework provider – or approaching an insurer direct, or through a broker.

Evaluate issues bespoke to the school

It is a sensible idea to identify issues that are bespoke to the school and consider how they may affect the conversion to academy status. Also, consider whether you want any of the existing service providers to be changed. Think about whether it would be advantageous to convert along with another school or schools, perhaps in a collaborative partnership or multi-academy trust. Your legal advisor will be able to provide further information as to the different conversion models.
Set up Working Groups

Whilst some decisions need to be made by the whole Governing body, many others can be delegated to smaller working groups or sub-committees. In order that everyone understands what they need to do, terms of reference should be clearly set out so that the members of the sub-committees know when they need to report back.

SA Law’s dedicated Education team regularly assists and advises schools on all legal matters. To find out more about how we can help schools considering Academy Conversion request the SA Law Academy Conversion Pack by emailing victoria.thomson@salaw.com

If you would like more information or advice relating to a specific matter, please do not hesitate to contact Chris Cook on 01727 798017 or by email at chris.cook@salaw.com or any member of the Education Team.

© SA LAW 2012
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual case.

Author: Chris Cook

SA Law’s cricket team have enjoyed a mixed season this year, with 2 solid victories against Rayner Essex and Brasier Freeth followed by disappointing defeats against Kingston Smith and Hillier Hopkins.  Debutants this year (in no particular order) included Rik Patel, Hayley Masson and Ben Ashworth, all of whom made valuable contributions to the team.  Keith Docking made a belated return to the team after a six year absence, exhibiting some smart fielding in spite of a disappointing performance with the bat.

Author: Chris Cook

With Summer (hopefully) on the way, the issue of appropriate attire in the workplace can become problematic for employers.

More and more offices are introducing dress-down days and “business casual” dress codes in an attempt to create a relaxed atmosphere at work. Hot weather can also lead to conventional office wear becoming too restrictive. This can cause problems and create uncertainty as to what is acceptable office wear.

An easy way to avoid problems is to include details on dress in the company staff handbook. This not only protects employers, allowing them to set guidelines on what will be acceptable or not, but also assists employees who may otherwise find deciding what to wear a challenge.

Employers should be careful to operate any dress policy consistently to minimise the risk of a claim of discrimination being made. It is also important to bear in mind any employees who may hold religious beliefs which dictate certain items of dress and ensure that any policy does not place such employees at a disadvantage.

Author: Chris Cook

I am pleased to report that SA Law recorded a resounding victory against Rayner Essex earlier this week.

Electing to bat in wet conditions, SA Law’s innings got off to a poor start with Satinder falling for a second ball duck.  Terrence and the skipper set about steadying the ship, both scoring 25 before retiring.  To the dismay of the onlookers, star ringers Guy and Josh both failed with the bat, scoring two runs between them.  It was left to Gary, Simon and the particularly impressive Chris A to score the middle-order runs, each scoring at a decent rate to keep the SA Law innings moving along at about a run a ball.  Hayley, supported by Andrew and Nat, played her maiden innings for the team, tweaking her quad muscles in the process (a la Peter Baines) but struck a strong blow off the last ball of the innings before being run out pushing for a third run.  SA Law finished on a respectable 116 for 9 from their 20 overs.

Josh and Guy, clearly riled at their batting failures, were handed the ball at the start of the Rayner Essex innings, with both bowling well to keep the run rate down.  The SA Law fielding was unusually sharp given the slippery conditions, with Josh and Steve F both producing smart run outs and Hayley, Gary, Nat and Andrew “the ball won’t go past me if I stamp on it” Nellist all pulling off decent stops.  Rik, batting for the opposition, benefitted from the “golden duck reprieve” rule and went on to score 8 before being bowled by Guy.  Terrence and Chris A came on as change bowlers and both kept up the pressure on the batsmen, with Chris taking two wickets in the process and Terrence bowling a very economical spell as darkness descended.  It was left to Satinder and the “golden arm” of Simon Walsh to bowl the last few overs, with Satinder picking up a wicket with a deceptively-slow first ball, while Simon took two wickets in the last over of the match to leave the opposition on 90 for 9 from their 20 overs, giving SA Law a victory by 26 runs.

Our next match is at 6.00pm on 2 August against Kingston Smith at Harpenden Cricket Ground, with the team: Omar Qassim, Simon Walsh, Nat Young, Terrence Trainor, Rik Patel, Andrew Nellist, Rob Ryall, Ben Ashworth, David Tanner, Guy Pettigrew and myself.

Author: Chris Cook

I am pleased to report that the firm’s cricket team got off to a winning start to the season on Wednesday evening.

Having elected to field first, Sat and the skipper both set about the task of building a solid score with some good strokes before each retired having reached 25. Nat “Ian Trott” Young failed to live up to his own hype from having been promoted up the order after being cleaned bowled for 3, while Gary and Terrence also fell unusually cheaply. Debutant Ben’s innings was even shorter, a second ball duck, later claiming he was distracted by an earlier deposit left on his shirt by a slightly off-colour Nat Young. Ringer Omer (not Omar!) scored some priceless quick runs while Rik played an anchor role. Simon rolled back the years later in the innings, scampering some quick singles to lift the score to a very creditable 135 for 4 from 14 8-ball overs.

After having been smacked around in his first over, Sat didn’t fancy a second, diplomatically claiming that it would be better to “let the others have a go”. Ben and Terrence both bowled well although faced the best of the BF batsmen, with the latter picking up a well-deserved wicket during one of his more economical overs. Clearly upset about his batting failure, Gary was like a man possessed in the field, until electing to chase down a ball 50 yards away, launching himself into the hedge when heroically stopping the ball on the boundary, and leaving himself spread-eagled in the foliage for several seconds while the batsmen continued running. Hayley also staked a claim for a regular spot by outshining all of her colleagues in the field with some smart stops. With the opposition on 109 from 11 overs, Omer and the skipper bowled at the death but were assisted in the stronger batsmen retiring at a key time, with BF eventually reaching 126 from their 14 overs and SA Law winning by 9 runs.

Our next match is on Monday 18 July against Rayner Essex at Shenley, again with a 6pm start. The team is as follows: Terrence T, Simon, Gary, Omar, Chris A, Nat, Steven Frith, Guy Pettigrew, Josh Rose, Hayley and me. Spectators would again be welcome as always.

Author: Chris Cook

Last week Facebook was accused of invading personal privacy “by stealth” after it started using facial recognition technology without informing its users.  The technology scans faces of people in tagged pictures and matches that information with other pictures to allow users to tag them automatically.

The technology has been used in the US version of Facebook for a number of months, although in that situation users were informed of the pending introduction of facial recognition technology weeks in advance.

While the majority of users will not be concerned as to the introduction of this technology, concerned users are able to disable the technology by adjusting their privacy settings so as to effectively “opt out” of the service.  However, bearing in mind the current data protection legislation, there is some debate as to whether Facebook has gone about this in the right way.

Where individuals can be identified from photographs on the Facebook site, the information will constitute personal data within the remit of the Data Protection Act 1998.  This in turn would necessitate the person using the photographs to have obtained the consent of all of the individuals appearing in the photograph before posting on a social networking site.  While this would not necessarily be a problem where those individuals are tagged to each other on the Facebook site, it is arguably an infringement of the Data Protection Act for processing personal information without having obtained prior consent.

These issues can also be translated into the workplace, where photographs of employees routinely appear on business websites without due consideration having been given to legal compliance issues.  It is important to obtain prior written consent from all individuals for their photograph to appear on your business’ website before it is used.

If you feel that the time has come to review your business’ usage of personal data belonging both to customers and employees to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act, please contact Chris Cook on 01727 798019 or by email at chris.cook@salaw.com

Author: Chris Cook

Work experience placements of less than one year undertaken by students are generally exempt from payments and National Minimum Wage (“NMW”).

However, there are circumstances when the individual who has been taken on as an intern will fall under the definition of a “Worker” and will be entitled to payment rights. This was the case in the recent victory of Kerri Hudson, who was taken on as an intern by TPG Web Publishing.

Kerri was expected to carry out actual work instead of just being trained and was therefore awarded £1,025 for five weeks’ work at the NMW rate plus pro rata holiday.

This is not the first case of its kind.  In 2008, Ms Vetta was also awarded payment at NMW by the Employments Tribunal, despite the fact that she was taken on by London Dreams Motions Pictures Ltd as an intern on an ‘‘expenses only’’ basis.

In 2007, the position of unpaid interns was raised as part of the consultation into the NMW.  At the time the government did not pursue further legislation but in light of recent cases it might be time to reassess that decision!

Author: Chris Cook

From 1 October 2010 the Equality Act came into force, representing a major change in the field of discrimination law.

In summary:

• The Act introduces a new basic framework of protection against direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation in respect of the provision of services and public functions, premises, work, education, associations and transport;

• There is a change in the definition of gender reassignment in that there is no longer a requirement for medical supervision;

• The Act offers improved protection from discrimination for people who are either perceived to have, or are associated with someone who has, a protected characteristic.  For example, an employee treated less favourably by her employer because she is the carer of a disabled relative will have greater statutory protection than was previously the case;

• The European definition of indirect discrimination is now to be applied to all protected characteristics.  There will also be extended protection from indirect discrimination in respect of disability;

• A new protection in respect of “discrimination arising from disability” is now in place to ensure to restore the protection afforded by “disability-related discrimination” prior to the decision in the case of Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm;

• Employers are now prevented from asking job applicants questions about health (including any disability) before making a job offer, save in limited circumstances;

• Hypothetical comparators are now permitted to be used when assessing direct gender pay discrimination;

• Clauses that attempt to prevent employees discussing their pay with colleagues are now unenforceable;

• There are new powers for employment tribunals to make recommendations to employers which benefit the wider workforce; and

• There are general provisions in the Act allowing employers voluntarily to take positive action to promote the interests of disadvantaged groups, for example, the disabled.

Further, the Government is currently consulting on how best to implement other new provisions, including:

• The new single public sector equality duty, which has the purpose of bringing together current sex, race and disability duties and extending them to also cover age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, and religion or belief;

• Allowing claimants to make combined discrimination claims;

• The obligation on employers in the private sector to publish gender pay gap information; and

• positive action in recruitment and promotion.

SA Law is hosting a free interactive workshop to help employers get to grips with the new 2010 Equality Act legislation. The workshop will guide you through changes and help employers to identify policies and procedures which require immediate amendment to avoid costly litigation and unnecessary uplifts.
For further information and to book your place, please click here.