Insights

In the recent case of Surrey County Council v Henderson, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that the level of investigation carried out by the employer following serious allegations against the employee, was not outwith the "band of reasonable responses" where evidence supporting the allegations was not given to the employee prior to his dismissal.

The English High Court has recently held that no liability arises to repay unlawful dividends unless the member receiving the dividend knew or had reasonable grounds to believe that such payment was being made in contravention of the Companies Act 1985.  An insolvent company claimed repayment of dividends unlawfully paid to the defendants who were the only shareholders and directors of the company.  The liquidators of the company argued on its behalf that the dividends had not been paid from "profits available for the purpose" and therefore were in breach of the Companies Act.  The defendan

Wednesday 7 December 2005

Time for Reflection - Mr Donald Matheson, Elder of the Free Church of Scotland and Session Clerk of the Falkirk Congregation

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

Stage 1 Debate: Joint Inspection of Children’s Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill

Executive Debate: Violence Against Women

Business Motion

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

Decision Time

Members’ Business - Debate on the subject of S2M-3520 Alex Fergusson: A76 - The Case for Improvement

Many important amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995
(the "Act") will be brought in to force on 5 December 2005 by the
Disability Discrimination Act 2005. Significantly, the amendments to
the Act include the extension of the definition of disability to cover
cases of HIV, cancer and MS from the point of diagnosis and include
also the removal of the requirement that mental illness requires to be
"clinically well recognised".

The term "joint and several" basis means that any of the parties involved could be sued for the full amount if a warranty claim arises.

Management teams often come under pressure from equity investors to give warranties under an investment agreement on such a basis. Whether the team accepts it really depends on the bargaining position of the parties.

The Scottish Parliament has set out a concrete timetable for business rates to be cut in Scotland to the level of those in England by April 2007 in a bid to boost competitiveness.

Finance Minister, Tom McCabe, confirmed the timetable for this equalisation in a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 6 October 2005, outlining plans to stagger its implementation.

Internet telephones are set to take the global communications industry by storm. Big names like Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and eBay are piling into the market and former state-run telecoms providers like BT are also investing.

In the recent case of Willow Oak Development t/a Windsor Recruitment v Silverwood the EAT held that dismissal for refusing to sign new restrictive covenants could be a potentially fair for some other substantial reason (SOSR), notwithstanding that the covenants were unreasonably wide and potentially unenforceable.

A recent survey conducted by Personnel Today of over 2,000 HR
professionals in the United Kingdom has revealed that "fattism" is
manifested in the workplace. Of those interviewed, 12% believe that
obese workers should not be in client-facing roles, 30% consider that
obesity is a valid medical reason for not employing a person and 11%
think dismissal by reason of obesity is a fair dismissal. Perhaps most
alarmingly, a massive 93% of those interviewed, when faced with two
identical candidates of different weights, would employ the "normal

In the recent case of Milne v The Link Asset and Security Company
Limited, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) provided some
clarification as to when suspension of an employee can amount to a
fundamental breach of contract by the employer.

With flu season underway employers will want to take the most appropriate and cost-effective approach to managing short-term sickness absence.  The statistics speak for themselves: 80% of sickness related absences are short-term sickness and it costs the UK economy £10-12 billion annually.  Whilst employers will not be able to control some illnesses, effecting a positive policy that addresses sickness absence can be very beneficial in reducing absence levels.

Offshore workers and their holiday rights are a hot topic in the oil and gas industries. Those of you who read  our firm's employment e-bulletin updates  will be aware that the Aberdeen employment tribunal is currently dealing with a case concerning the holiday rights of offshore workers.  Offshore employers have recently announced that they are to appeal the employment tribunal's preliminary decision issued in July this year, which held that the Working Time Regulations could be applied to offshore workers.