In this section we will cover the latest news surrounding employment law and recent cases.
Please note: Our Employment Law Articles do not constitute
legal or other professional advice and should not be relied on as
such. You should take specific advice regarding your circumstances
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Article.
Burns v Killgerm
Written by Rachel Billen
Thursday, 16 April 2009 00:00
Whilst the statutory grievance procedure has now been repealed, the new ACAS Code still deals with grievances as a mechanism for helping employers and employees to resolve grievances without recourse to the Tribunal. Whilst an employee is not required to submit a grievance before bringing a claim, an employee may be awarded reduced compensation for failing to do so.
In this case, the company sued the employee for breach of contract in the county court. In her response, the employee counterclaimed indicating that she wished to bring an equal pay claim against the employer at the Employment Tribunal.
This Court of Appeal case looked at the question of whether a controlling shareholder can be an employee of a company, thereby entitling the shareholder to a statutory redundancy payment, pay in lieu of notice etc in the event of the company’s insolvency.
This case was of particular importance to the Department of Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) as, prior to the case, the law had been conflicting and there had been thousands of claims being made to the National Insurance Fund for these payments.
A number of changes to employment law have taken place this month. They are:
1. Abolition of the statutory dismissal and grievance procedures
The much criticised rigid disciplinary and grievance procedures have now been repealed with dismissal and grievance issues now being conducted under the new ACAS Code.
Unfortunately though, as with so many areas of employment law, it is not quite as easy as it seems and there are some tricky transitional provisions to take into account. Furthermore, the concept of adjusting awards for failure to complete parts of the procedure is retained.
This case relates to the holiday entitlement of workers who are on long-term sick leave.
The European Court of Justice were asked to consider the rights of workers who had been on sick leave for the whole of a leave year. Was an employee or worker entitled to take statutory annual leave or receive a payment in lieu?
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