Recently in Working time Category

The Ministry of Justice has published statistics on the Tribunals Service's caseload for the three months to 30 September 2012 (PDF format, 133K) (on its website), including numbers on employment tribunal claims.

From July to September 2012, employment tribunals received 45,300 claims in total, 13% more than in the same quarter of the previous year. The increase was as a result of the rise in multiple claims, particularly those associated with working time legislation. The number of receipts of multiple claims went up by 25%, while the number of single claims went down by 9%, continuing a downward trend.

Of the 77,100 jurisdictional complaints received from July to September 2012:

• 35% were for unfair dismissal, redundancy and breach of contract;
• 27% related to working time legislation; and
• 15% were for unauthorised deductions from wages.

Photo: ePublicist

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 26 November 2012, including a Conservative MP providing details by gender of the number of complaints presented to employment tribunals over the last five years in which the claimants argued that they have suffered a detriment or were dismissed over the right to request flexible working, or there was a breach of the "right-to-request" procedure.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 15 October 2012, during which there have been interesting decisions on: collective redundancy consultation; holiday pay for pilots; TUPE and service provision changes; the enforceability of restrictive covenants in unsigned contracts of employment; and sexual orientation discrimination in goods and services.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 23 July 2012, including the important Court of Appeal decision in NHS Leeds v Larner that an NHS worker who was absent for the whole leave year and who did not submit any requests for annual leave during her absence was entitled to holiday pay on the termination of her employment.

With the Court of Appeal having delivered its verdict in NHS Leeds v Larner, we round up the key decisions that the Government will have to take into account when it drafts legislation to give effect to European Court of Justice case law on the relationship between holiday pay and long-term sick leave.

1. Stringer and others v HM Revenue and Customs sub nom Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Ainsworth and others; Schultz-Hoff v Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (ECJ) The European Court of Justice held that the right to paid annual leave continues to accrue during sick leave and, on termination of the employment relationship, a worker who has been on sick leave and unable to take paid annual leave is entitled to a payment in lieu.

2. Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA (ECJ) The European Court of Justice held that the Working Time Directive must be interpreted as precluding national provisions or collective agreements that deny a worker who is on sick leave during a period of scheduled annual leave the right to take the annual leave at a later time, even if this is outside the holiday year in which the annual leave was accrued.

3. Lyons v Mitie Security Ltd (EAT) The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a worker who fails to comply with statutory or contractual notice requirements for taking holiday can lose annual leave at the end of the leave year if not taken. The right to take annual leave is not inalienable.

4. KHS AG v Schulte (ECJ) The European Court of Justice confirmed that the Working Time Directive does not require an unlimited accumulation of a worker's paid annual leave during a period of long-term sickness absence.

5. Dominguez v Centre Informatique du Centre Ouest Atlantique (ECJ) The European Court of Justice said that it is contrary to the Working Time Directive (03/88/EC) for national legislation to make entitlement to paid annual leave conditional on a worker having worked a minimum of 10 days for the same employer in the holiday year.

6. Neidel v Stadt Frankfurt am Main (ECJ) The European Court of Justice held that German legislation allowing for a carry-over period for untaken holiday of nine months, with the result that public servants forfeit their leave if it has not been taken within the period of nine months after the end of the leave year because of sickness, is unlawful.

7. ANGED v FASGA and others (ECJ) The European Court of Justice confirmed that a worker who is sick during a period of annual leave cannot be precluded from taking the holiday at a time other than that originally scheduled, irrespective of when the incapacity for work first arose.

8. NHS Leeds v Larner (CA) The Court of Appeal held that an NHS worker who was absent for the whole leave year and who did not submit any requests for annual leave during her absence was entitled to holiday pay on the termination of her employment.

Photo: j.reed

A round-up of links to news items on employment tribunal rulings in the week beginning 9 July 2012, including an award of £9,000 for sex discrimination to a female driving test examiner who was refused permission to go on an HGV training course that a male colleague was allowed to attend.

Driving examiner wins sex bias case (on the Belfast Telegraph website) A female driving test examiner has been awarded £9,000 compensation for sex discrimination. The claimant took action against the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) after she was refused permission to go on a training course.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 18 June 2012, during which there has been a raft of employment law developments covering areas such as redundancy consultation, unfair dismissal, equal pay and pensions auto-enrolment. These include:

• a consultation on changes to collective redundancy rules;
• details of proposed provision for "protected conversations" in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill;
• a plan to require employment tribunals to order an employer to conduct an equal pay audit; and
  
• new pensions auto-enrolment letter templates for employers and enforcement guidance from the Pensions Regulator.

There has also been a new European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgment on sickness during annual leave. The ECJ confirmed that a worker who is sick during a period of annual leave cannot be precluded from taking the holiday at a time other than that originally scheduled, irrespective of when the incapacity for work first arose.

A round-up of links to news items on employment tribunal rulings in the week beginning 30 April 2012, including an employment tribunal ruling a move by Boots to cut some workers' Sunday pay from double time to time-and-a-half to be unlawful.

Boots move to slash Sunday pay for workers is ruled unlawful by tribunal (on the This Is Nottingham website) A move by Boots to slash its workers' Sunday pay has been ruled unlawful by a tribunal.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 30 April 2012, including the European Court of Justice decision in Neidel v Stadt Frankfurt am Main Case C‑337/10 ECJ (on the ECJ website) that German legislation allowing for a carry-over period for untaken holiday of nine months, with the result that civil or public servants forfeit their leave if it has not been commenced within that period of nine months after the end of the leave year, is unlawful.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 16 April 2012, including two contrasting employment tribunal decisions in McGraw v London Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Williams v Ystrad Mynach College on "discrimination arising from disability", a new concept introduced by the Equality Act 2010 on 1 October 2010.