Monday 26 January 2015

Underpaying Minimum Wage: A National Concern Guest Post



A recent report released by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has brought to light the full extent of some employer's failure to pay national minimum wage to their workers.
In total 37 firms have been shown to violate the law, which has resulted in a combined fine of £51,000 and a payout of £177,000 to employees missing their wages.

Who is to blame?
One of the most prominent companies under examination is high street clothing retailer H&M. The organisation which employs over 9,500 people in the United Kingdom has blamed their actions on 'time logging errors' in their system. The average wage paid to those affected was a mere £4.82.
Another business found to have underpaid their customers is  the motorway service station company Welcome Break, which underpaid 20 of its workers for a sum totalling 1,319; creating an average underpayment of £66 per employee.
Welcome Break's actions were exposed when an employee lodged a complaint with the HMRC to explain that her pay rate had not increased in line with the national minimum wage following her 21st birthday. Before long other employees were revealed to be in the same position.
Of all the companies to be exposed, the organisation responsible for the biggest violation of payment is Kings Group; a Hertfordshire estate agent. This organisation's main company cost 53 workers a total of £53,809, while their sister company Kings Group Lettings LLP underpaid 49 staff for a total of £26,893.

Minimum wage: Employment law facts & figures
Minimum wage is a completely non-negotiable figure that differs depending on an employee's age. Adults ages over 21 must receive a minimum of £6.50 an hour,  18-20 year olds are given £5.13, and 16-18 year olds take home at least £3.79.
When an employer deviates from providing fair pay they're in direct violation of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, and a failure to provide the amount of money due is certainly grounds for an employment law tribunal.

Criticism of minimum wage
The adult minimum wage is already largely considered to be too low to assist the personal situation of most UK residents. The Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have all expressed a desire to raise the amount.
Labour has pledged to raise the minimum wage if they win the 2015 general election, while Conservative Councillor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has spoken of the possibility that minimum wage could rise to £7.00 an hour within the next few months if the economy continues to improve.

Recent issues
This is one of many recent issues affecting employees on minimum wage. Several firms have been  accused or finding ways to avoid paying employees their share through the use of underhanded tactics like charging employees for the use of company uniforms and underpaying interns.
Other unfair methods prevalent in the underpayment of minimum wage include deliberately under-recording working hours, and refusing to pay travel expenses where necessary.

Result of the revelations
The TUC has drafted a plan to ensure that minimum wage payments are enforced, and Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of TUC, has summed up the shameful, dishonest nature of underpayment by claiming that “Failing to pay the minimum wage is an antisocial act that squeezes those workers who have the least.
She has also spoken about the need for larger government assitance: “Ministers must also step up enforcement action with more prosecutions, higher fines and a bigger team of enforcement officers to catch the cheats."
Will these new rules make a difference? We'll have to wait and see.

If you have concerns regarding minimum wage issues or the legislation of any other form of employment law concern, be sure to contact a professional employment law solicitor to better your rights ans entitlements.
Submitted on behalf of Nationwide Employment Lawyers

Please note that whilst every effort is made to maintain accuracy of the content in this article; we cannot take responsibility for any errors. This author is not a Lawyer or HR Specialist and this cannot in any way constitute a substitute for Employment Law advice. All facts should be cross-checked against other sources. Contact Nationwide Employment Lawyers should you require specific advice.




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Friday 23 January 2015

New case whistleblowing – knowledge of detriment and time limits

In McKinney v London Borough of Newham the EAT looked at when the three-month time limit starts to run where an individual is alleging he has suffered a detriment for whistleblowing.

Croner have produced a useful case summary....they helpfully conclude with:

'The decision clarifies that time begins to run in detriment for whistleblowing cases in the same way as detriment in discrimination cases. This means it is more difficult for whistleblowers to bring their claims in time when they are not aware of the date of any detrimental decision or failure to act. However, it is also likely, in most circumstances, that a tribunal will find it was not reasonably practicable to do so and will extend the time limit.'

Baili

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Monday 19 January 2015

Judgment reaffirms law in Ladd v Marshall when a judgment may be reviewed in the light of new evidence

According to Outasight VB Ltd v Brown the principles set down by the Court of Appeal in Ladd v Marshall still apply to the question of whether the ‘interests of justice’ require a review (now known as ‘reconsideration’ under rule 70 of the 2013 Rules).

At the reconsideration hearing, the tribunal did not accept B’s assertion that he had been unable to find the evidence before the liability hearing. It noted that, under the ‘strict’ rule 34 of the Tribunal Rules 2004, this would not count as ‘fresh evidence’. However, the tribunal took the view that it had wider discretion under rule 70 of the 2013 Rules, which allows for reconsideration where necessary in the interests of justice, and agreed to revoke its judgment.

Her Honour Judge Eady QC, sitting alone in the EAT, reviewed the change of language between the 2004 and 2013 Rules. Rule 34(3) of the 2004 Rules set out specific circumstances in which a judgment may be reviewed. These included, at paragraph (d), where new evidence became available that was not available at the time of the hearing. Rule 34(3)(e) also provided for review where the interests of justice required it. Thus, rule 34(3)(d) reflected the principles governing the admission of new evidence on appeal set out by the Court of Appeal in Ladd v Marshall 1954 3 All ER 745, CA, and rule 34(3)(e) recognised that, even where these principles were not strictly met, the interests of justice may still require new evidence to be considered. In HHJ Eady’s view, the fact that rule 70 of the 2013 Rules dispenses with the specific categories did not indicate any change of position, nor did it suggest that the Ladd v Marshall principles no longer applied.

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Friday 16 January 2015

Plans to limit the number of adjournments


The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) (the department for economic growth) has issued a consultation document, seeking views on new legislation restricting adjournments in employment tribunals.

The proposals are:-

A. if a party has already been granted two adjournments (for whatever type of hearing, preliminary or final), it will not be allowed a third adjournment.

B. if a request for an adjournment is made less than seven days before the hearing, it will not be granted.

However there will be exceptions to these rules:


(i) both parties agree the adjournment and the tribunal believes it is desirable to facilitate a settlement; or (ii) the adjournment is requested for a reason beyond the party's control (eg an administrative error by the tribunal, or late disclosure of documents by the other side). In such a situation, the postponement may be granted but a new rule will require the tribunal to consider whether a costs order should be made.
(iii) or cryptically if exceptional circumstances apply/

The consultation closes on 12th March 2015. I cannot help that this formulaic approach is unnecessary when Employment Judges are able to make the decision themselves.

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Thursday 15 January 2015

Acas early conciliation form changes and slanted market research

ACAS have now added a box which allows the Claimant to include the contact details of their rep so that they might be contacted directly.

Also now the employee must add the employer's details manually.

As an aside, I am expecting market research results to be published soon which show the whole process to be given a big thumbs up not because those forced to used the system think it is necessarily useful but because the questions I was asked as a representative using the system were entirely leading in my view and set up in order to make sure the conciliation process came out glowing.

I am not sure how many representatives have been asked about the specific performance of their ACAS conciliator in a particular case but from my experience their use has been varied depending on the case and the energy of the individual. One worrying point has been that quite a few Claimants have contacted me to say that they had actually received legal advice from an ACAS conciliator, indeed on conciliator actually tried to tell me what I should be advising my client.

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Wednesday 14 January 2015

The Government produce briefing on employment tribunal fees

The Government has produce a briefing which helpfully sums up the arguments for and against the introduction of fees to employment tribunals. For those interested, it also sums up in some detail the legal challenges so far and pending to the fee regime.

Briefing papers

Simply go to the site and use these search terms Published 12 January 2015 | Standard notes SN07081

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Monday 5 January 2015

Tupe: When are employees assigned to a service?

The EAT in London Borough of Hillingdon v Gormanley 12 November 2014 has affirmed that the key authority on the definition of assignment remains the CJEU decision in Botzen v Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij BV [1985] ICR 519. This ruling requires consideration of the contractual duties of employees and their role in the organisational framework of the putative transferor.

At para. 66 we are also reminded of when the EAT may make a costs order against a party:


66.               The Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules 1993 (as amended) provide:
“34A(2A) If the Appeal Tribunal allows an appeal, in full or in part, it may make a costs order against the respondent specifying the respondent pay to the appellant an amount no greater than any fee paid by the appellant under a notice issued by the Lord Chancellor”


Langstaff P gave guidance on the application of Rule 34A(2A) in Look Ahead Housing v Chetty UKEAT/0037/14.  At paragraph 53 he held:
“For the benefit of other cases which may follow, it seems to me that in a case in which an appeal is brought which is entirely rejected, there is no basis for any payment by the successful party to the Appellant.  Where there is an appeal which is partly successful, all will depend upon the particular facts.  The Rule does not permit the payment of the actual costs of litigation, apart from fees, from one party to another.  What the court centrally has to assess is whether it was necessary to incur the expense in order to bring the appeal – this includes asking whether the appeal, as in the present case, could have been avoided by the Appellant taking reasonable steps, or was made more likely to proceed by the behaviour of the Respondent to it; it should then recognise the fact, if it be the case, that an appeal has largely failed or for that matter largely succeed in deciding, in its discretion, exercised reasonably, whether it should award the full extent of the payment made by way of fees, or whether it should moderate that amount to a reasonable extent.  A reasonable extent includes making no award at all, though in circumstances in which an appeal has been partly successful this would have to be carefully justified and is likely to be rare.”

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