The wait is over as far as the European Court of Justice’s ruling on whether or not the EC Framework Employment Directive covers discrimination against an employee on the grounds of his or her association with a disabled person is concerned. The ECJ decision, published this morning, is that it does.

Trade unions will be counting the cost after a Court of Appeal decision that the GMB committed indirect sex discrimination in failing to pursue Middlesbrough Borough Council in connection with a long-running equal pay dispute.

A legal challenge to the UK default retirement age is due to be heard by the European Court of Justice on Wednesday 2 July. The case has been brought by the National Council on Ageing, which operates under the names Heyday and Age Concern. It argues that the Government has improperly implemented the EU Framework Directive on which our age discrimination Regulations are based through the inclusion of the default retirement age. This allows employers to retire people at age 65 or over.

The Government has begun the countdown to the introduction of its single Equality Bill with the publication of Framework for a fairer future - the Equality Bill (on the Equalities Office website), setting out initial details of the Bill’s contents.

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.

Two employment tribunal decisions demonstrate that individuals who are discriminated against for not having a particular religion or belief are protected by the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003.

Parents of children up to age 16 are to be given the right to request flexible working from their employer, potentially affecting 4.5 million employees. And under a separate, Education and Skills Bill, all employees will be given the right to request time to train.

A 67-year old job applicant could not claim age discrimination because of the exception that protects employers that choose not to recruit candidates who are over, or within six months of, the employer’s normal retirement age, an employment tribunal has found.

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.

The US senate has approved legislation to prohibit employers from using genetic information to discriminate against individuals.

Thanks to Emma at PJH law for the news that an Employment Tribunal has decided that baldness does not amount to a physical or mental impairment covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Phew, I'm glad that's been cleared up.

The latest novelty among US employers destined not to catch on in the UK is the practice of employers allowing parents to bring their babies to work.

There are a range of employment law changes, covering sex discrimination, corporate manslaughter, information and consultation and statutory rates, coming into effect on 6 April 2008. XpertHR has provided a round up of our resources on each affected area.

HR has been busy making changes to the way new employees are recruited and selected. IRS's latest survey (subscription required) of changes and trends in recruitment and selection has identified one clear winner: the internet.

Our three-part report is based on the experience of 133 organisations - covering a combined workforce of more than 1 million people - and shows that employers are now using the internet in all aspects of the recruitment and selection process.

We looked at changes and trends in three areas: candidate attraction; the application process; and, assessment and selection. In each of these key areas, the internet has grown in use and coverage.

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.

There may be changes to the legislation on sexual orientation discrimination if the Court of Appeal agrees with an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling [subscription required] that UK legislation provides no protection for those who are subjected to homophobic remarks, but are known by their abusers to be heterosexual.

A recent age discrimination decision provides a cautionary tale for employers that insist on candidates for recruitment or promotion having very specific qualifications without good reason.

… there is nothing in the age discrimination legislation to preclude the use of job titles containing the words “senior” and “junior” assuming the description relates to the status of the role and not the age of the person doing it?

Following on from the decision in Oyarce v Cheshire County Council [subscription required], the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has now held in Okonu v G4S Security Services (UK) Ltd [subscription required] that the reverse burden of proof does not apply to claims of discrimination on the grounds of colour or nationality under race discrimination legislation.

Disability discrimination legislation could be extended to cover direct discrimination and harassment against carers of the disabled, if the European Court of Justice (ECJ) chooses to follow a preliminary Advocate General opinion [subscription required] when it gives its final ruling in Coleman v Attridge Law and another later in 2008.

An employer fell into the trap of asking for applicants with "youthful enthusiasm" in a job advertisement, in the first decision on age discrimination in Northern Ireland.

This year's list of the 100 best employers of gay people has been published by Stonewall. Not surprisingly, public sector organisations dominate, though the presence of three police forces among the top four organisations may be rather more counter-intuitive if you haven't been following the efforts of various constabularies in this area over recent years.

Did you spend the Christmas break fretting about what employment law cases are coming up in the next twelve months? Help is at hand, with my round up of ten significant decisions expected in 2008.