Need to Know August 2010- Employment law update

Welcome to the latest edition of Need to Know...

Default Retirement Age To Be Removed

The Coalition Government is committed to phasing out completely the default retirement age ("DRA") of 65 and the accompanying statutory retirement procedures by 1 October 2011. To this end, a Consultation Document was published on 29 July 2010 setting out the various proposals to abolish the default retirement age and procedures. The consultation period for responses ends on 21 October 2010.

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de Belin v Eversheds Legal Services Limited

Employers are often worried about making women on maternity leave redundant. A recent Employment Tribunal decision (de Belin v Eversheds Legal Services Limited ET/1804069/09), however, shows the dangers of giving an unfairly inflated score to a woman on maternity leave as part of a redundancy selection exercise to try and avoid a discrimination claim from the employee.

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Nicolson Highland Wear Ltd v Nicolson

The recent judgment in Nicolson Highland Wear Ltd v Nicolson (a Scottish case) serves as a stark warning to potential litigants that, even in the employment tribunals, claimants must consider their own conduct in relation to a claim before bringing it. If a claimant's misconduct is of sufficient severity, the tribunal may hold that the claimant 'acted unreasonably in bringing the claim at all' and may make a costs order against him.

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Pay Secrecy and the Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 is the biggest change to equality law since 1970. When it is implemented in October 2010, the law on pay secrecy clauses will change. Previously, employers were able to incorporate pay secrecy clauses into contracts to ban employees from discussing and comparing their pay. Such secrecy over pay has helped to create a large gender pay gap. For example, government statistics show that in the financial sector, the average bonus for a man is 80% higher than for a woman.

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