Legal Bits & Bobs
Maternity/paternity
rights
The Government has published draft regulations on giving parents greater flexibility
in how they use maternity leave. When finalised the regulations will come
into effect in April 2010 and will apply to mothers of children due on or
after 3 April 2011. Similar rules will apply to adoptive parents.
The Regulations will enable new mothers, on their return to work, to transfer
any remaining period of maternity leave in the second 6 months of their baby’s
life to the father. Any remaining entitlement the mother has to statutory
maternity pay can be transferred to the father but otherwise this leave will
be unpaid.
Health- related employment questionaires
An amendment made to the Equality Bill will ban the use of pre-employment
health questionaires. Employers will no longer be permitted to ask job applicants
if they have a disability or medical condition where such questions are not
directly relevant to the applicants ability to do a particular job.
Associative discrimination
In a recent legal case a mother claimed disability discrimination against
her former employers on the grounds that she was discriminated against on
account of her caring duties for a disabled son. The case has gone to the
European Court of Justice but recently the Employment Appeal Tribunal have
ruled that anti-discrimination laws not only cover disabled people but also
their carers (associative discrimination). Hence it is important that employers
fairly consider the requests of “carers”, eg for flexible working,
and do not treat them less favourably than they do other workers.
Equality – Religion or Belief
Under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 it is
unlawful to discriminate against workers on the grounds of their religion
or belief. Employers must also ensure that they do not allow their other workers
to discriminate on those grounds.
The Regulations (as amended by the Equality Act 2006) define “belief”
as any “religious or philosophical belief”. A recent case ruled
that a genuine belief in man-made climate change can be a philosophical belief
for the purposes of the Regulations. Another case held that a spiritualist’s
genuinely held beliefs also fell under its scope. Hence it is important to
give due consideration to any “minority” or “fringe”
viewpoints genuinely held by employees where they might amount to religious
or philosophical beliefs and where discrimination could arise because of those
beliefs.
Training
Government proposals for giving employees the right to request time at work
to undertake training needed by them to improve their skills are contained
in the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. As with a request
for flexible working employees can expect their employer to give proper and
serious consideration to their request.
The right will be available to all employees who have worked for their employer
for more than 26 weeks.They must show that the training would make them better
at their jobs and thus improve the performance of the business. Employers
will not have to agree a request if they cannot see a good business reason
to do so.
The Act will apply to businesses with 250 or more employees from April 2010
and to all others from April 2011. Guidance is available at w.businesslink.gov.uk/timetotrain.
Absence from work
The Welfare Reform Act 2009 includes changes to the sick note system, the
first since it was introduced with the NHS in 1948. A "fit" note
will replace the sick note and GPs will have two options – either that
the employee is “unfit for work” or “may be fit for some
work.” In the latter event the onus will be on the employer, in consultation
with the employee, to carry out a risk assessment to establish that a return
to work would result in minimal risk to the employee and others in the workplace.
It is important for employers to note that if the employee’s condition
constitutes a disability then there is a duty to make “reasonable adjustments”
to enable the employee to return.
The new system comes into force on 6 April 2010. further information is availalbel
at:
www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/fitnote-employer-guide.pdf
Agency Workers – equal rights
The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 implement an EU Directive and give agency
workers the same rights as permanent employees in such matters as equal treatment
on pay, annual leave and maternity leave when they have been employed for
12 weeks in a given job. The EU Directive does not bestow employee status
and consequently unfair dismissal and redundancy will not apply. It is intended
that the Regulations will come into force in October 2011.
With
thanks to PBS Blueprint for this information. For more details go to:
www.e-content.co.uk/pbs_main/