This article by Tom Whitehead has been extracted from the Daily Telegraph here A teacher’s human rights were breached after police included unproven allegations against him in a criminal records check, the High Court ruled yesterday. The PE teacher has not worked for more than two years because the allegation remained on his record even though police [...]
Proposed reforms to Rehabilitation of Offenders Act criticised – Halsbury’s Law Exchange
May 3, 2013 from Leave a Comment
This article by Lucy Corin appears on the Halsebury Law Exchange website here Imagine you are a middle-aged man with a young family looking to change career to work as a primary school teacher. When you were 12 you took a chocolate bar from a shop. You learnt a salutary lesson and never repeated this [...]
Government to introduce new rules to limit unfair dismissal claims
April 4, 2013 from Leave a Comment
The Guardian have reported (here) that the government intend to introduce new legislation to make it easier for employer to get rid of staff A raft of changes to the way your employer can treat you will be introduced this summer in a bill that, critics say, will make it quicker and cheaper to sack staff. [...]
Couple falsely accused of child abuse win damages from Haringey council
March 18, 2013 from Leave a Comment
This item appeared on the Guardian website on the 14th March 2012. Couple falsely accused of child abuse win damages from Haringey council Pair plunged into ‘nightmare’ after anonymous tipoff about treatment of daughter are awarded £2,000 damages in high court Haringey civic centre in Wood Green, north London. The council mishandled its investigation, giving [...]
Government accepts recommendations for new rules for Employment Tribunals
March 18, 2013 from Leave a Comment
The Law Society have announced that the Government is to radically overhaul procedure for Employment Tribunals. Employment tribunals are to become the ‘last resort, not the first port of call’ after the government’s announcement today that it has accepted proposals in a fundamental review of procedure for tribunals. The proposals accepted by the government include new [...]
Government to review employment tribunal rules – 10 week public consultation launched
September 18, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Extracted from the The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) website 18th September 2012. Employment Tribunal Rules – review by Mr Justice Underhill Open date: 14 Sep 2012 Closing date: 23 Nov 2012 In November 2011, Mr Justice Underhill, former President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal was invited by Government to lead a fundamental review of the [...]
Minister announces new measures to limit employment protection
September 17, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Vince Cable announces measures to give firms more flexibility and confidence in managing their workforce and to reduce employment law red tape (more)
Employment Protection – just how safe are we
June 6, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The following article, by Philip Landau who is an employment lawyer at Landau Zeffertt Weir Solicitors recently appeared on the Guardian website here So, Vince Cable doesn’t like “firing at will”, a recommendation from Adrian Beecroft’s report that made headlines. Workers are therefore safe. Or are they? How easy is it in practise for UK employers to fire employees in [...]
Employment reforms doubles the time an employee has to work before being able to make unfair dismissal claim
April 10, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Excerpt from the Guardian The amount of time an employee has to work for an organisation before he or she can make an unfair dismissal claim against the employer has doubled to two years, in a move the government says will boost growth but unions say will result in a “hire and fire” culture. Anyone [...]
The Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2012
March 2, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The Government have announced changes to the rules governing Employment Tribunals particularly in respect of Deposit Orders and Cost Awards. These are orders are normally made when the Tribunal consider that a case is unlikely to succeed. Deposit Orders Currently deposit orders, which require a party (either claimant or respondent) to pay a sum of [...]
Majority of allegations made against teachers in Wales are either unfounded, false or malicious
March 1, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Over half of accusations made against teachers and teaching assistants by pupils in Wales turned out to be false, malicious or unfounded. Figures for the last five years obtained by BBC Wales found 55% of 312 allegations were later dropped. Teaching unions say that to try to deal with the problem, more action should be [...]
Judge critical of employers decision to refer complaint to the police
February 27, 2012 from Leave a Comment
The Court of Appeal recently considered a case involving two experienced nurses who were employed by the Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust who were dismissed for alleged alleged gross misconduct arising out of the way in which they handled a patient known a patient suffering from severe dementia. The full judgement can be found here. [...]
Two social workers who lost their jobs after the killing of Baby P to appeal against an employment tribunal
February 23, 2012 from Leave a Comment
Two social workers who lost their jobs after the killing of Baby P will appeal against an employment tribunal ruling they were fairly sacked. Former Haringey children’s services director Sharon Shoesmith is supporting two of Baby Peter’s social workers who claim they were unfairly sacked. Peter Connelly died being abused in Haringey, north London, in [...]
New rules enable schools to dismiss incompetent teachers: the legal issues
January 19, 2012 from Leave a Comment
There is an interesting post by Catherine Wilson on Halsbury’s Law Exchange concerning the Government’s announcement that it intends to make it easier to dismiss inadequate teachers. According to last weeks’ press coverage, schools are to be given new powers to weed out incompetent teachers and enforce “rigorous” standards to ensure performance is maintained. However, behind [...]
Ministry of Justice announce plans to introduce fees for using employment tribunals
December 15, 2011 from Leave a Comment
The Ministry of Justice has issued a press release (here) indicating that they intend to introduce fees for using employment tribunals Ministry of Justice Employment tribunal fees to benefit business and taxpayers 14 December 2011 Plans to lower the £84 million cost to the taxpayer, and relieve pressure on businesses, through the introduction of fees [...]
An employer cannot rely “blindly” on its medical advisers when deciding if an employee is eligible for an ill-health early retirement pension,
October 18, 2011 from Leave a Comment
This article appeared on the OUT-Law website on the October (here) Employer must not rely blindly on medical advisers when deciding if an employee is eligible for ill-health benefits, ombudsman says An employer cannot rely “blindly” on its medical advisers when deciding if an employee is eligible for an ill-health early retirement pension, the pensions [...]
Government announce changes for making unfair dismissal claims
October 5, 2011 from Leave a Comment
“Workers will have to pay to bring unfair dismissal claims and will not be able to do so unless they have worked for the employer for at least two years, the government has said. Under the plans, applicants will be obliged to pay the costs of an unfair dismissal claim – £250 for lodging a [...]
Court of Appeal decision in Bursar case
September 19, 2011 from Leave a Comment
The Court of Appeal have passed down an interesting but complex judgement relating to employment issues in Fuller v London Borough of Brent [2011] EWCA Civ 267 (15 March 2011) concerning the test of reasonableness in decisions relating to disciplinary proceedings. The judgement is particularly relevant because it relates to a school bursar formerly employed [...]
primary schoolteacher has been banned from working for allowing children to hug him
September 19, 2011 from Leave a Comment
This report appeared in the Daily Telegraph on the 18th September A primary schoolteacher has been banned from working for allowing children to hug him. Mark Pullinger, 41, was also accused of playing with a pupil by swinging her around by her arms. Following complaints from colleagues, he was told that he had “failed to [...]
Ill headteacher unfairly dismissed in a rigged disciplinary process.
August 11, 2011 from Leave a Comment
A head teacher with cancer was banned from parks, libraries and leisure centres after his resentful assistant made false allegations that he bullied her, an employment tribunal found. James Walker, a popular and long-serving head, was driven to the brink of suicide when his employers treated him in a manner “which bordered callousness”, a judge [...]
Teacher and his wife were suspended for three years before being sacked from the same school
July 27, 2011 from Leave a Comment
A teacher and his wife were suspended for three years before being sacked from the same school. Garry Marsh was suspended from his job at Coppice Special School, in Newcastle, on April 18, 2008. The suspension related to an allegation, which Mr Marsh denies, that he arranged a date for a family member with a [...]
Falsely accused teacher wins battle to clear his name.
July 15, 2011 from Leave a Comment
This item has been extracted from an article in the Daily Mail printed on the 13th July 2011 A teacher falsely accused of assaulting a disruptive pupil won his battle to clear his name yesterday. Despite 33 years of unblemished service, Ronnie Lane was sacked after the 15-year-old claimed the arts teacher had seized his [...]
Supreme Court rules that teaching assistant not entitled to legal representation in disciplinary proceedings.
July 3, 2011 from Leave a Comment
In what appears, at least to the laymans eyes, a reversal of previous view of the Appeal Court the Supreme Court Court have ruled that a teaching assistant accused of acts of abuse of trust with a pupil was not entitled to legal representation in school disciplinary proceedings which might lead to a referral to [...]
Calls for police officers to face open hearings
July 3, 2011 from Leave a Comment
Calls have been made for police officers to face public disciplinary hearings in line with doctors, nurses and teachers, after it emerged 48 officers in Wales have faced secret misconduct hearings in the past three years. The hearings, revealed following Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to Wales’ four police forces, were all held behind closed [...]