Weekly Issue 238

Coalition red tape

After claiming a “drafting error” last week in a statement about how the government is removing red tape for businesses, it has now come clean and admitted that the qualifying period for employees claiming unfair dismissal will increase to two years from April 2012.

Not so civil compensation

The rules governing accrued redundancy benefits of civil servants in the Superannuation Act 1972 required the agreement of the relevant unions to change them. In Public and Commercial Services Union and anor v Minister for Civil Service, the High Court said that the government was justified in reducing redundancy and early retirement benefits to reduce the budget deficit.

Intrinsic link

Airline pilots are entitled by law to statutory, paid annual leave, but the law did not make clear how their pay should be calculated. In Williams and ors v British Airways plc, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said that pilots were entitled not just to their basic salary, but also to be paid for any aspect of their work that was “linked intrinsically” to complying with their contract and which was included in their overall pay.