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Massive rise in employment tribunals says our Ealing expert, Louise Taft

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Louise Taft represents employees and employers in Unfair Dismissal, Discrimination, Whistleblowing and other Employment cases.
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ECJ rules on Compulsory Retirement

The European Court finally gave its long awaited ruling on compulsory retirement, rejecting the views of Age Concern that British law allowing compulsory retirement at 65 breaks European law.

But that is not the end of the story. The ECJ only said that the policy was capable of justification. The High Court now needs to decide whether compulsory retirement can be objectively justified.

One day I hope to be able to report an answer to this question!

Information Commissioner shuts down Construction Worker Blacklist

You may have heard reports of the Information Commissioner taking criminal proceedings against a firm that held a blacklist of construction workers and that enforcement proceedings are being considered against a number of household name construction companies who used the blacklist to vet workers before they were employed.

The affair should be a reminder to employers of their duties under the Data Protection Act. If they hold information about their employees in any database form (it does not have to be a computer database, the firm in question used old fashioned index cards), they may need to register with the Commission and make sure that they abide by Data Protection principles, broadly to allow employees access to the data held about them and allow them to correct mistakes.

Forty Three per cent rise in claims to the Employment Tribunal

Statistics just released by the Employment Tribunal reveal a staggering 43% rise in claims to the Employment Tribunal.

Any downturn in the economy inevitably leads to more job losses. Employers who aren’t careful to make sure they get redundancies right are bound to face a claim. Employees are more likely to claim when they are less likely to find another job after being dismissed.

Whilst all businesses are looking to cut costs at the present time, they shouldn’t be cutting out legal advice on dealing with their employees – it may cost a lot more in the long run!

 

March 26, 2009