The Fox & The Hare

Under The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003.There has always been a great deal of debate about what should amount to a philosophical belief for the purposes of The Employment Equality (Religion and belief) Regulations 2003. Many have been aghast to find that avid support for their football team doesn’t count.

Over the years the Tribunals and courts have held that for a belief to be a protected philosophical belief and obtain protection under the regulations, the belief must be:

• genuinely held
• a belief and not an opinion or viewpoint based on the information currently available
• a belief as to a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour
• able to attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance
• worthy of respect ion a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with the fundamental rights if others.

In the case of Hashman v Milton Park (Dorset) Ltd t/a Orchard Park, where Mr Hashman was represented by a Mr Hare, (sorry the closest thing to an Easter bunny we could find) which was heard in January, the Tribunal held that Mr Hashman’s fervent opposition to fox hunting and hare coursing formed part of his belief in the sanctity of life, including the lives of animals and so amounted to a protected philosophical belief under the Regulations.

Time to decide: An extra day off or not?

With the Royal Wedding fast approaching some employers have still not finalised their arrangements. Some employers will be closing through choice and giving all their employees an additional paid day off, others are closing and asking their employees to take it out of their holiday allowance and others are simply not closing at all. The confusion is bound to come up again in just over 12 month’s time when England enjoys another bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on 5th June 2012. What is the right approach?

What most people, employers and employees alike, forget is that there is no free standing right to take a bank or public holiday off. Anyone working such a day would be entitled to take the time off at another point in the leave year.

There are only 8 bank holidays in England and Wales, although other holidays can be declared to mark special occasions, as is the case with the Wedding and Jubilee. The only obligation on employers is to comply with the Working Time Regulations and give all full time employees 28 days holiday.

If the wording of an employee’s contract states that they are entitled to “20 days holiday plus all other bank and public holidays”, employers may need to foot the bill of an additional day off.

If the wording simply states that they are entitled to “28 days holiday per year” or if the contract lists the 8 “normal” bank holidays, that employee will not be entitled to an additional paid day off. They can of course request to take the day off the same as any other day’s holiday.

Budget Good News for Employers

The Budget was published on 23rd March 2011, together with another document called Plan for Growth. Those two documents together detailed 7 important points for employers:-

1. The government has committed to a “one in, one out” rule for employment regulations which means that for every new regulation brought in, one will be repealed. The impact of this is likely to be significant particularly as all small businesses struggle to cope with the immense volume of employment legislation. It is thought that over 21,000 employment regulations will now be reviewed. Amalgamation may be the name of the game but it should make employment regulations more straight forward.

2. From the 1st April 2011 until 30th March 2014 all start up business and small business with fewer than 10 employees will be exempt from any new UK legislation.

3. The right to request flexible working had been due to be extended to parents of children aged under 18 with effect from 6th April 2011. This has now been scrapped and the right to request flexible working remains only open to those with children aged under 17 (18 if the child is disabled).

4. It had been planned that the right to request time off to train, which is available where employers have 250 or more employees, was to extend to all employees. This has now been scrapped.

5. Changes to the employment tribunal system are being consulted on with a view to trying to reduce the number of claims. Ideas that have been put forward so far include the introduction of issue fees and increasing the qualifying periods for bringing a claim from 1 to 2 years.

6. The government will now consult on whether the proposal under the Equality Act 2010 to bring in new legislation which would place a responsibility on employers to prevent harassment from third parties is an “unworkable requirement”.

7. Under the Equality Act 2010 the concept of dual discrimination had been proposed. This has now been scrapped.

The Final Age Count Down...Act NOW

Tomorrow is the last date on which you will be able to serve notice of retirement on an employee who will be 65 (or such age as is provided for within their contract of employment) on or before the 30th September 2011 or who has already reached retirement age.

If you want to take advantage of the current legislation before it becomes necessary to provide evidence to show that a retirement age can be justified you must make sure that those employees affected recieve their notice by tomorrow at the latest.

One other point that is worth noting is that although the last possible date that an employee given notice under the DRA can work until is the 5th April 2012, although any employee given notice will still have the opportunity to request to work past that retirement age, provided they make such a request within the requisite timeframes.