The House of Lords clarified the UK’s Disability Law and have awarded Elizabeth Boyle £125,000 compensation from her former employer.

The ruling means that more people with controlled, recurring conditions are covered by disability law.

It extends protection from discrimination to people with a range of health conditions where symptoms can be managed or may fluctuate. This could include conditions such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

Elizabeth Boyle, who had developed vocal nodules which threaten speech, alleged she had been discriminated against by her former employer of 32 years, SCA Packaging.

Boyle protested when SCA removed partitions near her desk causing her to speak more loudly. The company argued Boyle was not disabled as her condition no longer had an adverse effect on her life.

In October 2001, she began proceedings under the Disability Discrimination Act alleging discrimination on grounds of her employer’s failure to make reasonable adjustments for her disability.

In May 2002, after 33 years’ service, Boyle was made redundant and, arising from this decision, she brought further proceedings alleging victimisation and unfair dismissal.

Ed Says, “It is easy for an employer to find themselves in this type of situation especially if you don’t have the luxury of an on-site HR or Occupational Health expert. The advice I always give is not to put yourself in a position where you are seen to be taking ‘medical’ decisions about an employee’s situation.

Always seek advice and keep notes of any discussions that you have with the employee – as for what is a ‘reasonable adjustment’ follow this link to the Shaw Trust charity who have an excellent website for employers.”

If you want to learn more about the Disability Discrimination Act there is an employer’s guide in the Library of both DBx1 and EDx3 products.

Birmingham City Council could be facing a £500 million bill in back-dated pay and bonuses when nearly 5,000 women workers at the council, mainly employed as cooks, cleaners and care assistants, won a class action on equal pay at an employment tribunal after it was discovered their male counterparts were earning significantly more money for work at the same grade.

They successfully argued that women were excluded from bonuses worth up to 160 per cent of basic salaries.

Although the final bill is yet to be confirmed, legal experts estimated it could equate to as much as £100,000 per worker or more, as equal pay awards can be back-dated for six years plus interest.

These costs relate to just one council. How many more cases are to be won with similar costs associated? Might be worth asking your council – bound to have an impact on business rates.

What do I need to do to avoid eruptions about pay as I have staff who will be taking extra time off because of the travel chaos?

A common question I am being asked at the moment and as always there are numerous opinions/views out there on the internet.

In the worst case scenario of a complaint being judged by a tribunal a number of factors will be considered; your approach, what policies are in place, whether you have a deduction clause in your contracts of employment and have you, and are you, being consistent in your decision making?

Typically it is the smaller business that gets caught out legally with its more informal relationship and limited employment policies in place.

Ed says; “My top five tips to help protect you in this situation are below – I know they may look a bit daunting at first but they are not as terrifying as they seem.

If you are an EDx3 client and would like me to produce more detailed guidelines (sorry can’t give individual advice) then email me at info@ed-belegal.com using the reference: Volcano and I will pull something together”.

Top Five Tips

1. Have an Absence Policy covering ‘authorised’ and ‘unauthorised leave’. Learn more information at Business Link URL

2. A clause in your terms and conditions of employment should stipulate that you can make a deduction in their pay for this type of situation.

DirectGov link explains it well and is more than likely what your employee will be reading for guidance!!

3.  Give employee the option to take the extra time off from any remaining holiday entitlement for this year rather than a deduction from pay.

4. If more than one employee is caught up in the chaos – be fair, what you agree for one person should be the same for all.

5. Be consistent with decisions made in the past – think back to similar situations. What did you do then and why, would the same decision/approach apply?

Finally, if in doubt get professional advice before making any decisions or taking action. The key is to demonstrate that you have explored the options fairly.

More than 50,000 people have called a government helpline on workers’ rights since it launched in September and last week launched a video on YouTube giving advice for employees on basic work rights. View video here.

Source: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)

The Pay and Work Rights Helpline offers support and advice on minimum wage pay, a 48-hour working week and unfair deductions. It provides a single point of contact for issues that are dealt with by several government agencies, including HM Revenue & Customs, the Health and Safety Executive, Defra, BIS, and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.

The most common cause for concern is the National Minimum Wage, making up 68 per cent of all calls received by the helpline. Working hour limits and agency worker rules are other common areas for queries.

Employment relations minister Lord Young said: “It is encouraging that so many have been assisted by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline since the launch. Workers and employers across industries should be aware of rights when it comes to work and pay and the helpline is there to offer people help, advice and support in knowing these rights. Where workers themselves are not confident to call the helpline, it is encouraging to see that friends and family are there to offer their support.”

His last point is illustrated by the fact that 12 per cent of calls were received from somebody other than the employee, often concerned friends or family members of an individual affected.

Ed Says; “In Edx3 we have inbuilt alerts for national minimum wage plus an ‘Opt out’ letter template for employees whose average hours are 48 or more.

If in your case you believe you have ‘exceptions’, i.e. accommodation costs or other related employment costs allowing you to pay less than the minimum wage, I strongly recommend you check this out asap as the process is quite complex and will be assessed on a case by case basis.

The only tool that I could find to help in these circumstances was on the Business Link website called the

‘National Minimum Wage entitlement, rates and arrears checker’

Click this link for details. It is not very user friendly but the only online tool available.

For my EDx3 clients I strongly recommend you record on your system details of the reasons you have for exception.

From 6 April 2010, approximately 11 million employees in Great Britain will have a new right to request ‘time to train’. This will be extended to cover employees in all businesses from 6 April 2011. For more information see my old blog posting – click here

Anyway thought best to reaffirm statutory payment changes from previous blog summarised below.

The most common statutory payments are effective from April and are probably of most interest to you:

• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) No Change – stays at £79.15
• Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) £124.08 (was £123.06)
• Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) £124.08 (was £123.06)
• Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) £124.08 (was £123.06)

If you missed or need a reminder of my blog article posted in February on this change click here and read all about todays introduction of the new ‘Fit Note’.

It also includes a link which explains how the new procedures will work.

An area mostly ignored by smaller business – Data Protection. People have a vague idea when it might apply but as with most legislation there is a reluctance to look at it closely because of time constraints and it is seen as low priority in the bigger scheme of things.

Your attitude could be about to change!! With effect from 6 April 2010, the Information Commissioner has a meaty new power to fine data controllers up to £500,000 for serious data protection breaches.

Breaching what I hear you cry!! Well if there has been a serious contravention of one of the eight data protection principles as set out in the Data Protection Act 1998.

The contravention must be either deliberate or the data controller knew, or the real scary part, ‘ought to have known’, that there was a risk!!!

If you are not an Ed Belegal customer (EDx3) and you still rely on spreadsheets of employee data with only manual copies of their data to ensure that you do not fall foul of this new penalty regime we suggest that you:

• Conduct a risk assessment in respect of all personal data being held

• Put appropriate data protection and information security policies in place and ensure that compliance with such policies is monitored

• Pay special attention to sensitive personal data being processed, e.g. data relating to race, political opinions, health, religious and other beliefs, trade union membership, criminal records, etc..

Ed says; “As part of our service to clients we surf the web sifting through 100s of websites to find the best information sources for our Library. We recommend for DPA (Data Protection Act 1998) you download and familiarise yourself with ‘Guide to the Employment Practices Code – Ideal for the smaller business’. Or alternatively just sign up with me and scrap those spreadsheets!!”

These changes will not affect employees you currently employ, just those applying for visas after the March date.

The change seems to have two purposes: reduce the financial earning potential for students not studying degree or higher level courses and the right to bring dependents with them.

It is the first point where you will have to be careful as you are used to a student being eligible to work 20 hours pw during term time. However not any more. If a course is below degree level and is not a foundation degree, they have reduced the amount of work that the student can do for you during term time to 10 hours per week.

Ed Says “Be very careful when being presented with a Student Visa that is dated post 3rd March 2010 to confirm whether they can work 10 or 20 hours per week. As far as UKBA are concerned it’s your responsibility to carry out these checks”.

Click Here for the ‘Summary guidelines’ produced by UKBA and below you can see a summary of the six key changes.

Changes to Tier 4 student visa applications  – 3 March 2010

New requirements for student applications under Tier 4 of the points-based system have come into effect today.

The new requirements are as follows:

1. We have raised the minimum level of English language course students can study, to level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
2. Before you can apply to study an English language course in the UK, you will need to show that your English language skills are at CEFR level B1 or higher with only some rare governmental type exceptions.
3. If you are applying to study a course that is below degree level and is not a foundation degree, we have reduced the amount of work that you can do during term time to 10 hours per week. (The maximum level used to be 20 hours per week.)
4. If you are applying under Tier 4 (Child) and you are 16 or 17 years old, we have reduced the amount of work that you can do during term time to 10 hours per week. (The maximum level used to be 20 hours per week.)
5. If you are applying to study a course for six months or less, you will no longer be able to bring your family members (known as ‘dependants’.
6. If you are applying to study a course lower than degree level (excluding foundation degree courses) under Tier 4 (General), your dependants will no longer be able to work (unless they qualify to work in their own right under Tier 1 or Tier 2 of the points-based system).