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View All NewsUK – Legal judgments expected in 2015
As 2014 comes to a close, Lawspeed, a consultancy which specialises in recruitment and employment law, has rounded up some of the significant employment law decisions expected in 2015.
Judgments expected in 2015 include legal cases pending on the calculation of holiday pay and the interpretation of the Agency Workers Regulations. Other notable rulings cover: adjustments for disabled people; the meaning of disability; caste discrimination; age discrimination in retirement; equal pay and collective redundancy.
Agency Workers
The judgment of an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that workers are afforded protection under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 only if they are supplied by a temporary work agency to work “temporarily” for the end user (as opposed to permanently). The contentious suggestion in this EAT decision that any open-ended assignment would fail as being “temporary” has recently been appealed to the Court of Appeal and the judgment is expected shortly.
Holiday Pay
2014 witnessed a momentous change in employment law precedents, which revolved around how employers should calculate holiday pay. In May 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that workers’ commission payments must be included in the calculation of their holiday pay. The case of Lock v British Gas Trading Limited is returning to the employment tribunal in the UK in 2015 to consider the case in light of the ECJ decision.
An appeal against the EAT decision in the case of Bear Scotland v Fulton that regular non-guaranteed overtime should be included in holiday pay calculations now looks unlikely since the Unite union has indicated that it will not pursue an appeal.
Equal Pay
Group equal pay claims have conventionally been the reserve of public-sector workers. However, this tradition may be about to change because Asda workers are planning a large-scale equal pay claim in an employment tribunal. Hundreds of female shop workers at Asda are claiming that they do work of equal value to staff in Asda’s male dominated distribution centres.
Collective Redundancy Consultation
In what might be a significant employment law case for large UK employers, the ECJ is considering whether or not the 20 employee threshold for triggering a collective redundancy consultation applies to one ‘establishment’ or the entire organisation. The EAT in England and Wales has already held that ‘at one establishment’ should be deleted from collective redundancy consultation legislation. The Court of Appeal has referred the issue to the ECJ to be heard together with Northern Irish and Spanish cases on the same issue.
Discrimination
Other cases due to be ruled on in the New Year include whether “caste” needs to be added to the definition of “race” under the Equality Act 2010. A case asks whether the use of regulation that forces police officers to retire “in the general interests of efficiency” amounts to unlawful age discrimination and finally, the Court of Appeal is hearing a case about how employers should treat absence triggers in an attendance policy for the disabled.
For further information about legislative and regulatory changes in the staffing industry, please see Staffing Industry Analysts’ monthly Legs and Regs reports.