Darren Clayton
FeatureDress code dilemmas
Employers need to consider potential discrimination issues when implementing a dress code.
FeatureWorking ‘when required’
Zero-hours contracts are being demonised but the debate is a complex one.
FeatureEmployment: saying goodbye to statutes
There is likely to be a cull of statutes as the government looks to reduce the burden on employers via its ‘red tape challenge’.
- Feature
Employment tribunals
Oddly, I am both young enough and old enough to remember the ‘@’symbol on a typewriter being redundant. The days of calculating ‘8 apples @2d each’ were long past, and yet we remained in an age when the headmaster of my school banned me from taking typing lessons on the ...
- News
Real employee rights or fantasy?
If you like pantomime it is always best to choose a classic. For some it is Mother Goose, for others Cinderella. For me there is only one – Jack and the Beanstalk – and it is wonderful to see that the government appears to agree. In fact, the government likes ...
- News
Dr, Do Little?
The similarities between employment law and Doctor Dolittle are of course striking. Both are a little eccentric among their peers and have at times struggled to be recognised fully. Sometimes they are assisted by monkeys and of course neither can sing. But perhaps most notable of all may be their ...
- News
ET or not ET? That is the question
When an employment lawyer dies it must be tempting for those left behind to draw upon the career of the deceased when considering an inscription for the tombstone. Some may aspire to the simple phrase: ‘He lived as he died; scandalous, vexatious and with no reasonable prospect of success.’ For ...
- News
Workers’ rights go in and out of fashion
Many comparisons can be made between employment law and the fashion industry - even leaving aside the glamour of its practitioners. Both can be cruel mistresses, blown in the winds of opinion; each is subject to changes that can appear at best fickle (and are often imported from the continent).
- News
Team GB: world police?
It is said that it is far better to give than to receive. That may be so, but under the Bribery Act 2010 both may be an offence, so ‘receiving’ may now have the edge.
- News
The issue of what constitutes a legal adviser
When is a legal adviser not a legal adviser? Based on section 147 of the Equality Act 2010, it appears to be when he is a legal adviser. Confused? Many have been.
- News
Employment law: the Equality Act 2010 – pressing the launch button
Not all good ideas make the grade. Hover cars, that dream of youth, have still to take off and the BBC has cancelled my suggested Tolkien-based detective series, Midsommer Mordor. Pity.
- News
Employment – is Or-well with the Equality Bill?
Was it Harriet Harman who wrote that ‘all employees are equal, but some employees are more equal than others’? Whoever it was, they may well have foreseen some of the more interesting provisions of the latest version of the Equality Bill, which, we are assured, is still cranking its way ...
- News
Objective selection criteria for redundancy
Getting older presents one with a number of oddities to deal with. Just how much chestnut rinse looks ‘natural’? (The answer, of course, is none.) Where is the door to my office? That kind of thing.
- News
Employment law: bonus culture and the court of public opinion
During the G20 demonstrations outside the Bank of England I received several texts from assorted City types. In each I was urged to join them on the roof terrace of the Coq d'Argent restaurant, where apparently one could watch the riot below while drinking half-decent champagne and even participate at ...
- News
Employment law: accrual of annual leave and sickness absence
For the modern solicitor it has become essential to develop the ability not only to be all things to all people, but also to be in many different places at the same time.
- News
ACAS: conciliation returns to the toolbox
Timing is often crucial. Do you wish that you had exchanged your Icelandic individual savings account for premium bonds (now the geriatric pin-up of the savings world) earlier this year? You would be far from alone. The ability to dance on the beat can often make or break you.
- News
Employment: no regrets
Sometimes it appears that life is all about regrets. That ill-advised ‘Law Society’ tattoo on qualification, the scurrilous suggestion that the little girl singing at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming, and indeed the rude comments many of us may have made about the likely spectacle Britain will present to ...
- News
Equality under the law: a fairer future?
It is the lot of every solicitor that there will be a specific dinner party question that folk cannot resist asking. That question will be specific to each area of law and will usually be raised over the After Eights as if for the first time ever.