Stressed out?

The Health and Safety Executive has published guidance for employers on how to deal with work-related stress. And not before time. Their own research shows that: 

  • about half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress at a level they believe is making them ill
  • up to five million people in the UK feel 'very' or 'extremely' stressed by their work
  • work-related stress costs society about £3.7 billion every year (at 1995/6 prices). 
    For a copy of the guidance, go to www.hse.gov.uk/stress/index.htm.

 

The government is committed to achieving a 20 per cent reduction in the incidence of work-related stress by 2010. So ACAS (the government-backed conciliation service) has worked with the HSE to produce a booklet offering practical solutions for resolving stressful situations and preventing future work-related stress.

The booklet relates ACAS advice to the Health and Safety Executive's six management standards concerned with the main factors that cause stress at work. Essentially, it is a more user-friendly version of the HSE advice

Government response to CEHR consultation

Following widespread consultation, the government has recently made some key changes to its plans for the Commission for Equality and Human Rights: 

  • it will have the freedom to decide which equality cases to support
  • it will have an explicit role to combat prejudice 
  • it will be able to bring proceedings in its own name
  • its legal duties on good relations will give priority to work with minority ethnic and faith communities
  • it will have a new power to assess a public body's performance of its public duty to secure improvement in promoting equality as an alternative to the courts.

Gender summit

At a gender summit at No 11 Downing Street recently, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), published a report showing that British productivity is suffering because women's skills and talents are under-used.


Entitled Britain's Competitive Edge: women, unlocking the potential, the report noted that many of the sectors that have a skills shortage (such as the building trade) employ very few women. These findings were backed up by a report from the DTI's Women and Equality Unit (WEU), which said that 60 per cent of working women are employed in just ten occupations.


You will find the EOC report at: www.eoc.org.uk/cseng/ policyandcampaigns/productivity_women.pdf (PDF file).


The TUC has also produced a report entitled Young at Heart which warns that traditional male dominated jobs such as manufacturing will remain the preserve of men, with women opting for jobs as care assistants and waitresses, unless the government acts to challenge these stereotypes.


The report, launched at the end of October, shows that 14 per cent of young men aged 16 and 17 work in manufacturing, compared to just six per cent of young women. Public service jobs account for 10 per cent of the employment of young women, compared to just four per cent of young men. And teenage girls earn 16 per cent less than their male counterparts.


For a copy of the TUC press release, go to www.tuc.org.uk/ learning/tuc-8856-f0.cfm.

Out of court supplement

A former firefighter who developed the asbestos-related condition of pleural plaques (scarring of the lung tissue) has settled his claim against West Midlands Fire Service for £14,000.

The claim for compensation was taken by Thompsons on behalf of the Fire Brigades Union.

Keith Dutton, who worked for the fire service from 1961 to 1990, was diagnosed with the condition in March 2000.

Compare and contrast

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has just decided an interesting case concerning an Austrian casual worker who claimed a breach of the part-time workers directive, as well as indirect sex discrimination on the basis that her contract did not stipulate any working hours.

She argued that she should be paid for the maximum hours that she could be asked to work, regardless of whether she actually did. She said that the vast majority of workers who accepted these casual contracts were women.

However, the ECJ decided - in Wippel v Peek & Cloppenburg GmbH & C0 KG - that her contract differed too much from that of full-time workers to be able to make a valid comparison.

Ms Wipple was employed on a 'work on demand' contract. In other words, her employer offered her work when it became available, and paid her monthly for the work done. 
The court noted that although she did not have a clause in her contract stipulating fixed hours or salary, she was free to refuse the work offered by the employer. By contrast, although full-time workers have the benefit of fixed hours and salary, they have no say in whether or not they work.

The court said, as there was no comparable full-time worker, there was no breach of the part-time workers directive, nor could the court compare the positions of full-time and casual workers in order to set up a claim for indirect sex discrimination. 
The case is significant, however, in confirming that casual work falls within the ambit of the part-time workers directive, and therefore also our Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000.

Ability to pay

Tribunals are now able to take into account a party's ability to pay when awarding costs.

In Walker v Heathrow Refuelling Services Co Ltd, the employment appeal tribunal judge said two factors were relevant: 

  • whether the claimant has recovered a sum of money as a result of the proceedings, and
  • whether any legal fees the claimant is ordered to pay are likely to be met by the trade union funding the claim.

Give us a break

The London Central Tribunal has found in favour of a railway worker who claimed that her right to statutory rest breaks under the 1998 Working Time Regulations was being breached by her employer. She was awarded £3360 in damages.

Mrs Holland's employers failed to provide cover for her during her statutory 20 minute rest breaks to which she was entitled. Instead, she had to take her breaks whilst still on call and contactable via radio. 
The tribunal dismissed the company's argument that because her duties included a small element of security and surveillance, this fell within the exceptions allowed by the regulations.

Following the outcome of Holland v Heathrow Express, Aslef acting general secretary, Keith Norman said that the union was determined to establish the rights of workers with stressful and responsible jobs to adequate rest breaks. 
The case was brought on behalf of the union by Thompsons Solicitors.

A Christmas promise

Whatever you do this Christmas, don't make the same mistake as in Judge v Crown Leisure Ltd.

At the company's annual Christmas dinner dance in 2001, Mr Judge's manager repeated a promise made earlier in the year that Mr Judge would, within two years, be on the same scale as another manager (Mr Mills) who had been transferred over from a sister company.

Two years later, the promise had not materialised. Mr Judge resigned but was persuaded to return and subsequently received a large bonus which substantially increased his salary. However, it was still not as large as that of Mr Mills.

In June 2003 he resigned again and claimed constructive unfair dismissal. The appeal tribunal upheld the decision of the tribunal that the manager's 'promise' was not a legally binding commitment. The conversation at the dance did not constitute a contractual intention, but consisted merely of 'words of comfort'.