Weekly Issue 409

Rise in number of zero-hours contracts

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported last week on the number of zero-hours contracts from two surveys – the Labour Force Survey (LFS) (based on the number of people who report that they are on zero-hours contracts), and a survey of business (which is based on the number of contracts which do not guarantee a minimum number of hours).

Assigning contracts

To satisfy the requirements of a service provision change (SPC) under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE), employees have to show they were “assigned” to an “organised grouping” (among other things).

Casting off

Although discrimination on the basis of a person’s “caste” is not specified within the Equality Act 2010, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held in Chandok v Tirkey that it could still be held to be discrimination if it fell within the heading of the protected characteristic of “ethnic origins” in section 9(1)(c) of the Act.