A round-up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: a shop steward who was unfairly dismissed for swearing at work; a policewoman who has been award £273,000 for sex discrimination; and an academic employed for nine years on a succession of fixed-term contracts who has won his battle for a permanent contract.

Savile Row tailors, Ede & Ravenscroft, have filed a writ against a former employee for allegedly wrongly obtaining confidential client information from the firm’s database before leaving to start a rival firm, according to a report in the Sunday Times (on the Times website). Ede & Ravenscroft, which was founded in 1689 and makes ceremonial robes as well as suits, is tailor to members of royalty, the House of Lords and the legal profession.

What issues do line managers deal with on a daily basis? We’ve gathered data to come up with our 10 most popular line manager briefings since January 2009 (which might go some way to providing the answer).

Myles Bebbington, a paperboy who lost his claim for unfair dismissal in an employment tribunal because he was not an employee of the newsagent, has now lost his appeal in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: compensation for a harassed female soldier; a decision on sickness during annual leave; and the resolution of a zero-hours contract dispute.

It is common knowledge that employees are legally entitled to be accompanied at disciplinary hearings by a work colleague or union official. But most organisations' disciplinary procedures do not make mention of whether or not employees have the right to legal representation at internal disciplinary meetings. Two recent rulings may make some employers think again when next updating their disciplinary procedure.

The transfer of staff where TUPE applies on the sale of a business or transfer of a service is an area that invariably causes headaches for the HR teams involved. Getting to grips with even just the basics of TUPE can raise complex questions and practical difficulties. The IRS conference on managing successful TUPE staff transfers aims to refresh your understanding of the basics, as well as looking in detail at more advanced issues arising from TUPE transfers.

We've put together a resource pack to accompany the conference, which brings together the information and guidance on TUPE that is available on XpertHR, to help delegates get the most out of the conference. If you can't make the conference, the resource pack will still be a useful tool in updating your team on the essentials and latest developments in the law on TUPE.

Do you need to know about employment law in France? The latest European employment law guide added to XpertHR looks at key elements of employment law in Frances as it applies to: recruitment and selection; pay and benefits; employee rights; contracts of employment; training and development; equal opportunities; industrial relations; health and safety; and termination of employment.

XpertHR regularly publishes information on industrial relations law and practice across Europe - providing expert analysis of developments at European level and in individual European countries. In addition, other guides to national employment law in European countries include: the Netherlands; Italy; Germany; Greece; Poland; and Ireland. For ease of reference, we’ve rounded our European information up on one European employment law and practice page.

Remember that we want to provide information on the countries that are relevant to you in your HR role - so let us know which countries you’d like to see guidance on in the future.

Want to receive the answer to a frequently asked HR question every day? If you’re on Twitter, you can do so by following HRdailyquestion. The questions come from the popular XpertHR FAQs section, which contains over 1,000 frequently asked HR questions - and more importantly the answers.

Employees of the christian bookshop chain SPCK who brought tribunal claims after being sacked by the shops' new owners, have accepted a substantial offer of compensation, according to USDAW, the union representing them.

The saga following the transfer of the business to a charity run by two American brothers could be seen as a bad practice guide for employers, showing how not to handle a business transfer, variation of contracts, dismissals or the response to subsequent tribunal claims.

The latest guide in the XpertHR “how to” section looks at the issues for employers to consider to ensure that they comply with their legal obligations towards fixed-term employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave.

Swine flu and the workplace - it comes as no surprise that many of the most frequently accessed FAQs on XpertHR throughout July were on this subject (see Swine flu - guidance for employers for up-to-date information and guidance). Other popular questions cover breaks for new mothers to express milk and the special rules for employees made redundant while on adoption leave. Most employers are aware of the laws protecting employees made redundant while on maternity leave, but remember that they apply to employees of either sex on adoption leave too.

For those of you waiting with bated breath to discover who will be chosen to fill the lucrative post of ‘witch’ at Wookey Hole (as reported in my previous blog post), fear not - the auditions are on Tuesday.

Employer instigates disciplinary process. Employee promptly raises grievance. Few employers will be lucky enough not to have come across this situation. In many cases their response is to put the disciplinary process on hold until they have dealt with the grievance - sometimes prolonging the issue for months. But is this really necessary?

In the latest XpertHR Outlook video, I ask managing editor Jo Stubbs some tricky employment law questions sent in by XpertHR customers on issues including redundancy pay, maternity,  TUPE and the age discrimination regulations.

One of the most frequently viewed XpertHR FAQs during January 2009 concerns the topical question of which limit on the rate of a “week’s pay” should be used to calculate a statutory redundancy payment where the dismissal takes place shortly before the annual 1 February increase (this year, from £330 to £350), but the employee is paid in lieu of notice.

With the current difficult economic times affecting many employers, it seems only natural that many of the top 10 most frequently visited FAQs on XpertHR throughout October concerned redundancy. Issues include refusal of alternative employment, a redundant employee seeking to leave before the expiry of his or her notice period, and whether or not the statutory maternity pay of a redundant pregnant employee can be paid as a lump sum.

Some of the most frequently visited FAQs on XpertHR during June concern the calculation of statutory payments - redundancy pay and SMP - where the employee in question has had a recent change in hours. Questions on the length of time that an ex-employee’s personnel record should be kept, and a change of heart on the employer’s part after a job applicant has accepted a position also feature.

To coincide with the launch of its new online archive, The Times has published a list of 100 "cases that changed Britain", including some colourful employment decisions.

Fast growing business networking site LinkedIn, in common with other social networking sites, makes it very easy for a user to email everyone in their address book and ask them to become a contact.

But what happens when you build a network based on contacts accumulated as a result of your employment - and then go into competition with your former employer, possibly seeking to poach clients who are now part of your effortlessly extensive online network?

Throughout May, some of the most frequently visited XpertHR FAQs were those recently added to the site as a result of subscriber suggestions - questions on a rise in the limit of a week's pay coinciding with the notice period for a redundant employee, and the qualification requirements for trade union officials who accompany workers to disciplinary or grievance hearings. Others concerned employees returning to work when they're signed off sick by a doctor, and asking job candidates about their sickness record.

Many of the questions featured in our 10 most frequently visited FAQs during April relate to legislative changes that came into force on 6 April, including the amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in relation to harassment and rights during maternity leave, and the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. Meanwhile, the statutory retirement procedures are still a source of confusion, with subscribers viewing FAQs on the number of requests that can be made in connection to a proposed retirement date, and whether or not an employer can seek to retire an employee at a later date where it has previously granted a request for him or her to continue working indefinitely beyond retirement age.

Throughout March, issues on which XpertHR subscribers were looking for answers included the use of words such as "senior" and "junior" in job titles, recouping training costs where an employee subsequently leaves the organisation, and the difference between wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal.

Many of the questions featured in our 10 most popular questions during February are new additions to the FAQ section of XpertHR – the majority published as the result of subscriber suggestions. So, if you have a question that you would like to see in the FAQ section of the site, don’t forget you can make use of the suggest a question button [subscription required]. Even if your suggestion isn’t suitable for publication as an FAQ, it might still provide useful ideas for guidance that could be published in other areas of the site, or prompt more detailed examination of a problematic subject.

… the commonly used term ‘probationary period’ has no legal meaning?

Several of the most frequently asked HR questions throughout November concern sickness absence and cover the issues of covert surveillance where there are suspicions about the genuineness of the sickness, decreasing pay to reflect a phased return to work, and payment during the notice period where sick pay has been exhausted. The subject of rewarding low sickness absence also features.

A Court of Appeal ruling handed down on Friday is reported in the Times to be the first time that the courts have recognised a minister as being an employee of a church. Previously ministers have been regarded as holders of holy office, or servants of God, rather than employees with access to the full range of employment rights.

The issue of pregnancy and maternity leave is high in our list of the top 10 most frequently asked HR questions during September – with fertility treatment, multiple births and regular time off sick during pregnancy all featuring. Don’t forget you can view a full range of common questions on this topic in the FAQ section of XpertHR.

Unsurprisingly, several of the questions featured in our top 10 most popular questions during August are recent additions to the FAQ section of XpertHR. But with almost 1000 FAQs available, why not browse some of the older questions? And, if you can’t find the answer to your particular question, you can always use the Suggest a question button [subscription required]. Even if your suggestion isn’t suitable for publication as an FAQ, it might still provide useful ideas for guidance that could be commissioned for other areas of the site, or prompt more detailed examination of a problematic subject.

Are you unclear about exactly which terms and conditions you inherit on a TUPE transfer? Or what sorts of things constitute “measures” for consultation purposes?

Perhaps you’re confused about whether there’s a requirement to give a day off in lieu of a bank holiday during maternity leave. Or unsure if you can still roll up your short-term workers’ holiday pay into their wages.

Employment law is full of time limits and figures to remember. Remind yourself of some of them with our list of numerical employment law facts.

• One week – the statutory minimum notice to be given by an employee who has been employed for at least a month to terminate his or her contract. Remember, unlike the notice to be given by an employer to an employee, it does not rise with length of service.

Make sure your organisation isn’t caught out by reliance on these employment law myths.

1. Employees with less than a year’s service can be dismissed without any necessity to follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure

Employers should think very carefully before taking a decision to dismiss an employee with less than a year’s service without following the statutory procedure. Not following the procedure will result in an automatically unfair dismissal and an increase in any compensation awarded – although, in general, an employee needs a year’s service to bring a claim. Employers should, however, note that a number of reasons for dismissal – including trade union membership or a reason connected to pregnancy – require no minimum service for an unfair dismissal claim. There is also the possibility that the employee might succeed in another claim, such as a discrimination claim, as a result of the dismissal. Either scenario would result in increased compensation.

A Court of Appeal decision reported on XpertHR this week [subscription required] confirms that a gap in the law denies statutory sick pay to agency workers on fixed-term contracts of less than three months.

Unsurprisingly, the XpertHR FAQs on the smoking ban in England have been the most frequently visited on the site this month – but what else have HR professionals been asking? Leaving aside smoking-ban related questions, we look at the top 10 most frequently asked HR questions during June.

British workers tend to come relatively low down the international holiday entitlements league tables, even taking account of current plans to increase the statutory minimum from 20 to 28 days' paid leave.

But while counting down the days to this year's summer holiday, spare a thought for your American counterparts. US employers are notoriously stingy with the holidays; according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com, just 25% of Americans have four weeks' or more paid leave, while 30% get less than a fortnight. One in eight (12%) get no paid leave at all.

As if that's not bad enough, the Society for Human Resource Management (the US equivalent of the CIPD) reports that Americans are increasingly abandoning their two-week summer holiday for a series of extended weekend breaks (PDF format 412KB).

Ed Bowyer, a solicitor at Lovells, looked at situations where the law requires collective consultation with employee representatives.

He provided some interesting figures on the incidence of tribunal claims relating to different areas of collective consultation. In 2005/06 there were 4,056 claims in respect of consultation on collective redundancies compared with 900 on TUPE consultation. By contrast, there has been just one claim under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 since 2005.

Philip Bartlett, Partner at Simmons and Simmons, fielded numerous delegate questions throughout his update on the statutory dispute resolution procedures - testimony to just how 'enormously difficult' they can be to deal with. His promise to write some practical guidance on some of the intricacies of the subject for www.xperthr.co.uk was therefore much appreciated.

Speaking on the Government's consultation document on the possible repeal of the procedures he reminded delegates that they now have a 'once in a decade' opportunity to influence employment law - although the DTI is indicating that employers will be stuck with the current system until at least April 2009.

More than 100 delegates packed into the Mayfair Conference Centre yesterday for an IRS employment law update, featuring some excellent speakers covering the hottest topics in employment law. I had a great time chairing the conference.

I'm going to post in more detail on the event tomorrow. In the meantime here are some pictures taken on the day by Jo and Jean.

UPDATE - related posts:
IRS employment law update - the morning
IRS employment law update - the afternoon