Weekly Issue 427

Hot weather work

Given the recent hot temperatures, both the TUC and Acas have called on employers to temporarily relax workplace dress codes to help staff cope with workplaces that may have become unbearably hot.

Wrong Acas number

Following the introduction of mandatory early conciliation, claimants have to record the number of their Acas early conciliation certificate on their ET1 form. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held in Sterling v United Learning Trust that tribunals are entitled to reject a claim if the number on the original form was wrong.

Aggregate number

Following other recent decisions about the meaning of the phrase “at least 20” in the EU Collective Redundancies Directive, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed in Lyttle and ors v Bluebird UK Bidco 2 Ltd that it refers to the number of dismissals per establishment and not to the aggregate number across all the establishments of an undertaking.