Thursday 30 December 1999

Some more EAT decisions…

NEW EAT DECISIONS

The following cases were placed on the EAT website on 24th December. The transcripts can be downloaded from http://wood.ccta.gov.uk/eat/eatjudgments.nsf

Surrey Health BC v Crooks [Holland J., 29.10.99]: The Respondent to an EAT hearing failed to lodge a skeleton argument until the morning of the hearing. The Appellant applied to debar the Respondent from playing any further part in the appeal. The EAT declined to make such an order, but made a partial order that the Respondent could not rely on any authorities or any arguments that did not appear in the ETs decision.
The EAT said that the factors influencing it in going that far were that the ETs decision was forensically bold and the Appellant had anticipated the Respondents main argument in its own skeleton argument.

Barry v Caledonian International [Lord Johnston, 1.12.99]: Applicant presented his IT1 within 1 month of dismissal. The tribunal declined to register it on the grounds that it did not give sufficient particulars of the complaint. The Applicants union failed to respond to the tribunals invitation to particularise the IT1 further and, five months later, the Applicant lodged a second IT1 after telephoning the tribunal to chase the progress of his claim. The ET held that the second IT1 was presented out of time and refused to extend time. The EAT overturned this decision. It held that the first IT1 was validly presented within three months, and that since registration was a different matter to presentation, the original IT1 remained valid.

Bridgewater Housing Association v Harrigan [Lord Johnston, 2.12.99]: A bald statement by an Employment Tribunal that a TUPE transfer has occurred is unacceptable. Tribunals should give full reasons for their decision, and the failure to do so is an appealable error, notwithstanding that the question of whether a transfer has occurred is one of fact.

Wednesday 22 December 1999

Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations

The final version of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/3312) were finally published on 20th December (despite coming into force on 15th December!)

The Regulations are attached to this E-mail (Crown copyright 1999, reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office) in HTML format.

I am aware some subscribers have had problems with the 'E-mail back' service that I have used for distributing documents in the past. I would welcome feedback on whether that method is preferred for document distribution, or whether you prefer the documents distributed in this way by simply attaching them to E-mails.

Monday 13 December 1999

Service Ban on Homosexuals to be removed

According to an article in today's Times reporting an interview with Geof Hoon, the Defence Secretary, the armed services are to lift the ban on homosexuals serving next month.

A new code of conduct will be published in January concerning behaviour standards irrespective of sexual orientation. This will state that behaviour alone will determine whether the sexuality of a man or woman will consitute grounds for dismissal. A known homosexual who conforms to standards of military discipline will be treated no differently from a heterosexual colleague.

This follows the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on 27th September 1999 in the cases of Jeanette Smith, Graeme Grady, Duncan Lustig-Prean and John Beckett (see bulletin of that date) which held that the U.K. was in breach of article 8 of the ECHR (right to respect for family and private life).

Although this Code is welcome, the armed services continue to disciminate on grounds of gender (eg Sirdar v UK in which, last month, the European Court of Human Rights held that the refusal of the Royal Marines to employe a female chef was not incompatible with the Convention). No doubt this will be discussed at a government conference, being held tomorrow in Birmingham, on racial and sexual equality in the armed forces. However, Geoff Hoon is reported in The Times as indicating that "there might still be good reasons for doubting the wisdom of giving women front line combat roles.". He is quoted as saying "I'll look at it, but there is no presumption in favour of it."

Plus ca change...

PS - Just a reminder - the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999 come into force on Wednesday - see bulletins dated 5th November and 25th October 1999

PPS - Please note that the advertisements which have appeared recently at the footer of some of these messages are imposed by the ListBot server (which I use for distributing these bulletins) and do not form part of these bulletins. I am arranging to have them removed, and they should not be appearing after Christmas.

Monday 6 December 1999

ECJ Judgment - Allen v Amalgamated Construction

The ECJ held on 2nd December in Allen v Amalgamated Construction that the Acquired Rights Directive applies to transfers of undertakings between companies which are members of the same group.

A transcript can be obtained from the ECJ web-site (which can be quite slow). Alternatively, there is a direct link from the employment law 'superportal' web page at www.emplaw.co.uk

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Please note that the advertisements which have appeared recently at the footer of some of these messages are imposed by the ListBot server (which I use for distributing these bulletins) and do not form part of these bulletins. I am currently arranging to have them removed, but they may continue appearing for the next few weeks.

Thursday 2 December 1999

Employment Law and Human Rights - PLEASE OPEN ATTACHMENT

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED RESPONSE.

Please find attached the seminar notes, as requested, on employment law and the Human Rights Act 1998.

I offer in-house seminars on this and other topics. Please contact me on mail@danielbarnett.co.uk for further details.

Employment Law and Human Rights - seminar notes available

Complimentary copies are available of seminar notes from a lecture I gave this afternoon for the Society of Chief Personnel Officers and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting.

The subject is 'Employment Law and the Human Rights Act 1998'.

To obtain a copy of the notes by E-mail (in Word for Windows format), please send a blank E-mail to auto@danielbarnett.co.uk?subject=human-rights-seminar-Dec99 . Do not reply to this message - it will not work!