ACAS guides

ACAS has recently produced a number of guides, which may be of interest to trade unions.

Redundancy Handling: The aim of this booklet is to provide guidance on how best to handle redundancies. It emphasises the importance of planning labour requirements to avoid or to minimise the need for redundancies; the benefits of establishing an agreed procedure for handling redundancies; and the need for fairness and objectivity when selecting members of the workforce for redundancy.

Communications and Consultation: People need to talk to each other, no matter where they work. This booklet is aimed at helping employers, employees and their representatives develop effective arrangements for communications and consultation. It describes:

  • why communications and consultation are important
  • who should take responsibility for communicating and consulting
  • what kinds of information are required and when consultation should take place
  • the main methods of employee communications and consultation
  • the need for regular review of procedures and adequate training.

 

Holidays: Disagreements over holidays and holiday pay are common if entitlements are not clearly set out in writing. This leaflet, also available from ACAS, gives general information on:

  • what the law says
  • how a part-time worker's holiday is calculated
  • rights of agency/casual workers
  • how leave accrues
  • what a worker can do if holiday entitlement is denied
  • dealing with requests for extended leave. divider rule

 

Satisfaction brings a boost

Satisfied staff can give a significant boost to business, according to a new joint report from the DTI, TUC and CBI.

Managing Change: Practical ways to reduce long hours and reform working practices explores how firms can manage change to improve working patterns and address the long hours culture in the workplace.

The report is based on a series of nine masterclasses, held between July 2004 and June 2005 by the Equal Opportunities Commission. At each event, business champions - including Rolls Royce, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, BT and Unilever - shared their successes in promoting flexible working practices, while maintaining productivity.

More than nine million people now work flexibly in this country, and the number of employers offering flexible working has almost doubled compared to five years ago.

 

Silent suffering

More than seven in ten pregnant women treated unfairly at work are suffering in silence, according to a recent report by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

The EOC's investigation of over 1,000 mothers also showed that women sacked for being pregnant are losing out on £12 million in statutory maternity pay every year. Replacing these women costs employers £126 million.

It wants the Government to implement three key recommendations:

  • The provision of a written statement of maternity rights and responsibilities for every pregnant woman at her first antenatal visit, with a tear-off copy to give to her employer
  • Employers to be allowed to ask women to indicate when they plan to return from maternity leave
  • Greater financial support for businesses with fewer than ten employees, and access to HR support for small employers.

For a copy go to
www.eoc.org.uk/cseng/policyandcampaigns/suffer_summary.pdf (PDF file).

 

Civil partnership

When the Civil Partnership Act comes into force on 5 December 2005, same-sex couples will be able to start the process to register as civil partners. They will then have similar rights (and obligations) to spouses.

To ensure they get those rights, the Government has to amend a whole raft of other legislation to implement the changes brought about by the Act. It has therefore introduced a Statutory Instrument to bring the changes into force in December. Among other things, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Amendments to Subordinate Legislation) Order 2005 SI 2005/2114 makes changes to ensure that entitlement to paternity and adoption leave and pay are extended to civil partners. Likewise, the right to request to work flexibly.

Go to www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20052114.htm to read the full order.

 

More time limits

This is a salutary tale of a solicitor who took things to the wire and lost. It applies equally to trade union officials.

In Agrico v Ireland, the claimant instructed solicitors shortly after she was dismissed. The lawyer was overstretched and had implemented a system whereby claims were lodged with the tribunal just before the limitation period expired.

In this case, the time limit expired on the Monday and the solicitor (who was going to be on holiday from Friday) told his secretary to fax the claim form on that morning. She, however, was ill on that day and did not fax it until the next day - a day late.

The employment appeal tribunal overturned the decision of the tribunal, saying that there was no good reason why the claim form could not have been presented in time.

 

Time's up

An appeal will be out of time if the notice and the relevant paperwork are not received by 4.00pm on the date the 42- day period expires, the employment appeal tribunal (EAT) decided in the conjoined appeals of Woodward v Abbey National plc; JP Garrett Electrical Ltd v Cotton.

This overturns the earlier decision of Clark v Midland Packaging Ltd which said that an appellant would be in time, as long as they had started the fax transmission of the appeal notice before the 4.00pm deadline.

This is because the relevant EAT practice direction states that: "When a date is given for serving of a document the complete document must be received by the Employment Appeal Tribunal by 4.00pm on that date. Any document received after 4.00pm will be deemed to be lodged on the next working day."

The judge said that wording should be interpreted as meaning: "recorded and received in the automatic fax log... operated at the EAT."

 

Government 'response'

Following a consultation on draft regulations amending the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts, the Women and Equality Unit has just published the Government's response.

The amendments are necessary because of changes to a European directive.
Although the Government says it considered the submissions made by stakeholders, including the EOC, TUC, CBI and ACAS, the vast majority of the proposed regulations are essentially unchanged from their draft form.

 

Wrong post code clarifies review powers

When the claimant in Sodexho v Gibbons failed to pay her deposit, the tribunal made an order to strike out her case.

It then turned out that the order to pay the deposit had not reached her solicitors because she had given the wrong post code for their office.

When the money was immediately paid, the tribunal reviewed its decision and allowed the claim to proceed. The question was - did the tribunal have that power?

The employment appeal tribunal (EAT) has said that, although the original order requiring the payment of the deposit cannot be reviewed, the order striking out the claim can be.