Increase in statutory holiday entitlement

The minimum statutory holiday entitlement was increased with effect from 1 October to 4.8 weeks - 24 days for someone working a 5 day week. Note that if you already give your employees four weeks' holiday plus bank/public holidays, then you do not need to increase their holiday entitlement further.

The minimum holiday entitlement will be increased again in April 2009 - to 5.6 weeks - but again this amount can include bank/public holidays, so if you already pay for these, there is no need for a further increase.

What you may need to reconsider are your arrangements for part-timers (to ensure they get at least the correct pro rata amount), those on maternity leave or long-term sick, those who leave or join you during the holiday year and whether your existing rules on carry over can still apply. See our website page on this: /docs/legal/stathol.html

Just as we all get our minds around the new entitlements, and put clauses into contracts clarifying the arrangements for taking leave (or not) on bank/public holidays, we then read about a proposal to add another bank holiday between August and Christmas! The Institute for Public Policy Research has suggested that an additional bank holiday, on the Monday after Remembrance Sunday (12 November this year), could help to build a British national identity and would act as a national "thank you" for local heroes and as a national "ask" for people to give back to their communities. They said that it could also celebrate the diversity and pluralism of modern Britain. Needless to say the CBI were not enthusiastic about this suggestion, and commented quickly that the current improvements to the statutory holiday were already costing the economy up to £6 billion! So whilst the UK lags behind the rest of the EU in the number of bank/public holidays, and whilst Scotland and Ireland both have more than England and Wales (9, 10 and 8 respectively) it would seem that there will be opposition to the introduction of any more!

Whilst many workers will benefit from the increased statutory holiday, research by Legal & General found that 7% of full-time workers do not take any holiday at all! Their survey of 2000 people, including 942 full time workers, found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that senior management are the least likely to take breaks from work, with 29 per cent working through the day, and 12 per cent saying that they don't take holidays from work.

Increases to the National Minimum Wage

The minimum hourly rates from 1 October 2007 are as follows:

• £5.52 for workers aged over 22
• £4.60 for workers aged 18-21
• £3.40 for workers aged 16-17

This is the first year, since the NMW was introduced in April 1999, that the Low Pay Commission has recommended an increase - 3% - in line with inflation rather than above it.

Will we see any further changes to the Minimum Wage? The Chairman of the Low Pay Commission has said that their "cautious approach this year should not be taken as a signal that the minimum wage is too high. After four years of substantial increase, this year the evidence pointed to the need for moderation. Next year that might change, or the need for caution might be even stronger." At the same time, the British Youth Council is calling for an equal minimum wage for all workers, regardless of age - they feel that the existing three levels are discriminatory on grounds of age. And Gordon Brown is still considering regional variations in the future. A controversial report for The Economic Research Council, published in June, argued that the minimum wage for Londoners should be boosted to £6.90 an hour, while recommending minimum wage levels below £5 for workers in Yorkshire, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Watch this space!

The Commission for Racial Equality, the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission have now merged to form a single equality body, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) which will be responsible for all areas of discrimination. The CEHR takes on all the powers of the previous commissions, but also has new powers to enforce legislation more effectively and promote equality for all, including powers to take on human rights cases.

It's new website was launched at 8.00am on Monday, see www.equalityhumanrights.com/

In addition there is a new helpline - with separate numbers for each of England, Scotland and Wales - open from 9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday. The helpline will deal with enquiries on gender, age, disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and human rights.

The numbers are as follows:

0845 604 6610 - England

0845 604 8810 - Wales

0845 604 5510 - Scotland

The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 came into force on 1 October 2007. This extends the crime of incitement to commit racial hatred to cover religious hatred, and creates a new criminal offence of stirring up hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion (or lack of religion). The offence applies to the use of words or behaviour which are threatening and intended to stir up religious hatred.

An act of religious discrimination in the workplace could amount to an offence under the Act. The offence is not limited to individuals: a company will also be guilty if "it is shown that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance of a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer". If found guilty of this offence, the officer of the company involved, as well as the company can be punished - which can be either a fine or a prison sentence of up to seven years.

Firstly, flexible working requests:

From 1 October 2007 more types of adopter and foster carer are entitled to make a request for flexible working to care for a child. The definition of "adopter" now includes those who are adopting a child, whether domestically or inter-country, where the child has not been placed with the adopters by a UK adoption agency. They also include definitions of 'adoption agency', 'private foster carer' and 'residence order'. In addition, those who foster children privately (as opposed to those with whom children are placed by fostering services, who were already covered), and those in whose favour a "residence order" is in force in respect of a child are covered, as are the spouse, partner or civil partner of such individuals.

And secondly, discrimination on grounds of sex or religion/belief:

Also effective from 1 October 2007, and following the Equal Opportunities Commission proceedings against the Government in relation to some of the provisions of the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005, the amendments on pregnancy and maternity leave discrimination and harassment have now been made to implement the court's ruling.

And as from 14 September 2007, amendments to the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) (Religion or Belief) Regulations make it unlawful for training providers to discriminate in the arrangements they make "for the purpose of determining to whom [they] should offer training."

A final reminder that the remaining provisions of the Data Protection Act (DPA) come into force on 24 October, meaning that manual filing systems in existence before 24 October 1998 are now required to comply with the DPA.

Separately from this, the Information Commissioner's office has been busy! Not only have they issued a new technical guidance note, 'Determining what is personal data', which explains and illustrates the Information Commissioner's view of what is 'personal data' for the purposes of the Data Protection Act, but they also plan to issue new guidance on the meaning of 'relevant filing system'. See www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/detailed_specialist_guides/personal_data_flowchart_v1_with_preface001.pdf

And they are consulting on a new draft CCTV Code of Practice. This sets out advice on good practice for those who operate CCTV cameras and other devices which record images of individuals and is intended to assist them in complying with the DPA. Appendix 3 includes specific guidance on the use of CCTV in the workplace and in monitoring employees.

The ICO reports that the UK has more public and private CCTV systems per person than anywhere else in the world. This is coupled with the recent finding as reported by the national advisory body for the CCTV industry, Camera Watch, that 90% of these cameras may be failing to comply with the law.

Consultation is open until 31 October 2007, and a form for submitting comments is available from the ICO website.

Sex discrimination case results in almost £47,000 compensation

The first female and lay director of the London Irish Centre (LIC) in almost 50 years successfully brought a claim against the Board of Trustees of the LIC, and the Co-coordinator of the Centre's Welfare Service, a Mr John Twomey, on grounds of sex discrimination.

Ms Murnane worked as the Centre's Director for nearly two years until she was dismissed. All previous Directors had been Catholic priests. Even though the LIC Trustees were aware that they were in a weak position legally, they asked Ms Murnane to resign: when she refused to do so, she was suspended. The Tribunal noted this, and also thought that Mr Twomey's communications with Ms Murnane were "unacceptable, vitriolic and almost abusive". His grievances against Ms Murnane were judged to be "vindictive and excessive", and he resisted and resented her authority over him, failing to provide an adequate explanation for his actions.

Ms Murnane was awarded £46,537 in compensation.

Equal pay - confirmation that a woman can use as a comparator someone ranked lower than her in an equal pay claim

You may remember the case of Hope v SITA (UK) Ltd, where the employer tried to argue that the claimant should not receive equal pay even though she was doing MORE work than her predecessor! The claimant was promoted to a post previously held by a man, but was paid less than he had been, even though he had had a deputy (her!). The Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected the argument that where a women is found to be doing more work than her male comparator, this cannot be "like work".

In another common sense decision, the Court of Appeal has decided, (effectively by rewriting s1(5) of the Equal Pay Act 1970) that an equal pay claim can also be brought where the claimant’s job has been given a higher value to that of the comparator in a job evaluation study (ie it doesn't have to be rated the same). The case is that of Redcar Borough Council v Bainbridge - the Council had argued that a woman, who could undoubtedly base a claim on comparison with a man in the same grade, could not alternatively base her claim on comparison with a man who had been placed in a lower grade by a job evaluation study, but who in fact received more pay than she did.

Finally, can fresh evidence make a previous unfair dismissal fair?

No! In Hygia Professional Training v Cutter, the employee was dismissed for trying to poach customers. At the tribunal hearing, the employer had no real evidence of the poaching - they said that they did not know they were expected to obtain such evidence.

Following the decision, the employer obtained four witness statements which, if accepted, were evidence that their ex-employee had been approaching clients whilst still employed by them. The EAT decided that this could not make the previous unfair dismissal fair. They should have obtained the evidence first time round.

Religious discrimination - nose studs

Ken Livingstone has condemned the dismissal of a worker at Heathrow Airport who was dismissed for wearing a nose stud.

Amrit Lalji had worn the stud at work for more than a year when a manager told her to remove it for health and safety reasons. She refused, was suspended and subsequently dismissed. Her employer, Eurest caterers, said she had been advised "on a number of occasions" of their policy - which bans jewellery because it can harbour bacteria, create a hazard when working with machinery and find its way into food.

Many Hindu women have their noses pierced and fitted with a stud for their wedding as part of the Shringar ritual. Shringar is a part of the Hindu wedding ceremony, similar to the giving of a wedding ring within a Christian marriage. Brides who choose to have their nose pierced and wear a stud for their wedding will want to continue to wear it as a sign of their married status.

Ms Lalji's union, GMB, is trying to have her reinstated immediately.

What is "reasonable" personal use of the Internet during the working day?

Hot on the heels of media coverage about employers' concerns about employees blogging and using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube (not just the time spent using these but also the content of what has been put on them) come reports of dismissals due to the amount of time spent using the Internet for personal matters.

According to a BBC report, one worker at Neath Port Talbot council was sacked, two resigned and another three face disciplinary action for spending too long on personal use of the Internet whilst at work. The sacked worker and those who resigned were found to have spent up to two hours a day on ebay.

Whilst the council's policy allows employees to use the Internet for personal use in their own time, the investigations found an unacceptable level of usage for shopping and entertainment.

Unison, the union who defended the staff, said that the temptation to visit such sites was too great and is now planning to push the authority to limit use of the Internet for leisure purposes to lunch breaks and to filter web access at other times. (They currently prevent access to porn but not shopping sites.)

We've just updated our template IT policy and added to this - perhaps this is a timely reminder to look at your own and ensure that whatever personal use you decide to allow is clearly defined, and that your staff are aware of this!

The theme of this year's European Week for Safety and Health at Work, 22- 26 October, will be "Lighten the Load" - looking at preventing injuries through moving and handling at work. Apparently the number of such injuries has increased virtually every year since 1999, which is surprising given the decline in working in industrial environments and increase in office-based work. In particular, managers in warehouses, hospitals, nursing homes and retail environments are encouraged to be aware of the importance of training their staff properly.

New research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and People Management magazine found that:

• four out of ten employers believe alcohol misuse is a significant cause of employee absence and lost productivity
• one third report that drug misuse has a similarly negative effect in the workplace
• many have no policy in place to help them manage this
• only 38% provide co-ordinated rehabilitation support to help individuals with drug or alcohol problems to return to work after treatment.

The CIPD is encouraging employers to ensure that staff are fully aware of any policies on drink and drugs, and any provision of counselling or other help - via staff briefings, poster or publicity campaigns at work, internal notice boards newsletters and e-mail alerts.

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has also been looking at this issue, and has given its support to employers who conduct "responsible" work-based drink and drug tests, as part of overall prevention policies which include education, training and support.

The HSE estimates that alcohol alone causes between 3% and 5% of all absences from work, amounting to around 8 to 14 million lost working days each year. Even small amounts of alcohol will increase the risks of accidents in safety sensitive work, such as driving or operating machinery, as well as reducing performance, damaging customer relations and causing resentment amongst other employees.

If you don't have an alcohol and drugs policy, you may wish to customise our template policy - see /docs/pol/substances/index.html

The Government is trying to persuade GPs to encourage their patients who are long-term sick to get back to work. It claims that evidence published last year proves that being in work can help people with a health condition to get better; and that returning to work from unemployment improves health.

A new survey of 1500 GPs, carried out by Doctors.Net on behalf of the DWP, found that two-thirds (64%) are unaware of the evidence that work is beneficial for physical and mental health. However, nearly 90% said that if they knew of this evidence it would affect the advice they give to their patients. Hence the government is now issuing lots of information on this!

And a report from The Work Foundation into the economic and social impact of musculoskeletal disorders - by far the biggest cause of work-related illness - says most sufferers recover more quickly by staying at work. The report says "There is overwhelming evidence that worklessness is, itself, bad for health." They state that long periods away from work are bad for patients.

We've added last month's hot topic - managing the psychological contract - to the website, as well as a template letter to confirm the details of jury service, a template sales commission scheme and a lone workers' policy. We've also updated and added to our customisable IT policy.

See:

/docs/guides/psychological.html

/docs/lf/jury/index.html

/docs/lf/commission/index.html

/docs/pol/lone/index.html

/docs/pol/it/index.html

Do your colleagues annoy you?

Details of a survey by Ceridian seem to indicate that 58% of office workers would keep quiet even if a colleague's bad habits cause them stress. They found the most annoying traits were

1. using excuses to get out of work - 20% cited this
2. tantrums and arguments in open spaces - 11%
3. gossiping and private conversations - 9%.

Which is your most productive day?

The Centre for Economic Performance has done a study and come up with the startling news that Tuesday is the most productive day of the week! 18.8% of work is done on Tuesdays as opposed to 16.8% on Fridays.

Maybe we don't have time for a nap on Tuesdays - a survey by Lightspeed Research found that a third of UK workers admitted to taking a short nap after lunch. An interesting choice of location - 10% of them fell asleep in front of their PC! Other common venues were their car in the car park, a couch in their office, the toilets (!), a meeting room and underneath their desk ....