Pay levels and awards
In DLA Piper's case of the week, Anderson and others v London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority, the Court of Appeal considered whether or not uncertain wording in a collective agreement allowed an employer to give staff a lower pay increase than in previous years.
In this week's case of the week, provided by DLA Piper, the European Court of Justice held that keeping differences in pay in the "interests of good industrial relations" cannot, by itself, be a sufficient justification, although can be one factor taken into account if there are other justifications.
Claire Thomas is managing associate, and Chris McAvoy, Joelle Parkinson, David Rintoul, and Gerri Hurst associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
The European Court of Justice has held that a clause in a collective agreement excluding professional experience acquired with another company in the same group when grading pay is not discriminatory on the ground of age.
A large employer has been fined £5,000 by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and ordered to repay over £30,000 in wages to 40 workers who were underpaid, in a stark reminder to employers to beware of making deductions from wages for a benefit that takes pay below the national minimum wage.
Chris McAvoy, Cane Pickersgill, Tessa Harland, Sarah Wade and David Rintoul are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
Claire Benson is managing associate and Caroline Jacobs and Chris McAvoy are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
A company in a highly competitive creative industry that took on a worker seeking to get her foot in the door and paid her "expenses only" was found in this case to have breached national minimum wage and working time legislation.
In this case, the industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland described a small employer's decision to dismiss a young worker to avoid having to increase her pay from £4.00 to the national minimum wage rate of £4.92, when she reached the age of 18, as "callous".
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has considered the circumstances in which the terms and conditions of employees derive from the "same source" as their comparators for the purposes of the Equal Pay Act 1970.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to pay levels and awards.