Health & Safety and Human Resources

Human Resources: Flexible working not a burden on employees

The latest statistics released by the CIPD reveals that only 10 tribunal claims relating to the right to work flexible working were successful in 2010/11. Although 277 claims were placed, only 48 reached the tribunal stage and of those, just 10 were won by the employee.

This appears to demonstrate that flexible working legislation has been successfully implemented without imposing an excessive burden on businesses. This is likely to encourage those campaigning to extend the right to work flexibly to all employees.

Health & Safety: The cost of not separating transport from pedestrians

Separation of pedestrians and forklift trucks could have prevented a serious industrial accident when a 61-year old employee had both his ankles and lower legs broken by a fork lift truck reversing into him at Verplas Ltd’s Dorset site.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching S.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court and was fined £10,000 with costs of £2,407


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Whistleblowing Reminder

The disclosure of over 250,000 messages from US envoys on Wikileaks serves as a reminder of all the obligations businesses have to employees who disclose information that would fall within the definition of Whistle Blowing. The economic climate has also led to several high profile disclosures within the financial sector.

A whistle blower is someone who raises a concern or highlights wrong doing that has occurred within their workplace. Provided that a disclose meets the requirements, an employee will have a potential tribunal claim if they are subsequently dismissed or victimised. This protection is set out in the Protected Disclosure Information Act 1998.

However, the disclosure must be a 'qualified' disclosure, meaning that it must be made in good faith; there must be a belief that the information is true, and the disclosure must be made to the right person.

Reflecting growing recognition of the issue, tribunal claim forms now contain a section for employees to indicate if they want the matters raised in their claim to be referred to an appropriate regulatory body.

Having a good Whistleblowing Policy is advised because having a policy should reduce the risk of a disclosure being mishandled. The risks to a business are far greater in relation to a disclosure that with a standard grievance, so it's imperative that Managers can recognise a protected disclosure and deal with it appropriately.

Focus on ...Compensation

Recent tribunal statistics demonstrate the shocking amounts of compensation awarded in discrimination claims. The statistics reveal a 56% increase in accepted claims, obviously a cause for concern for businesses. Interestingly, compensation awards for Disability Discrimination claims are highest, resulting in an average award of £52,087!

Empire HR has drawn up a list of average compensation awards for each type of discrimination:

TYPE OF DISCRIMINATION	AVERAGE AWARD	BIGGEST AWARD
Disability	£52,087	£729,347
Sexual Orientation	£20,384	£163,725
Sex Discrimination	£19,449	£422,366
Race Discrimination	£18,584	£374,922
Age Discrimination	£10,931	£48,710
Religious Discrimination	£4,886	£9,500

When considering these figures it's important to bear in mind that a very high percentage of claims are actually settled before it gets to the tribunal stage. The figures also fail to take into account the legal fees incurred by businesses in defending the claims.

Anticipated surge in discrimination claims

With The Equality Act coming into effect as of 1st October collating and replacing most existing discrimination legislation, the Act is likely to result in a surge of tribunal claims in the next few months. With the increase in protected characteristics from six to nine plus the introduction of protection from perceptive and associative discrimination it seems likely that employers are increasingly likely to be faced with a tribunal claim.

This is particularly worrying because the Tribunal Service has already reported a sharp increase in the number of claims placed, even before the introduction of the Act.

It is more important than ever to ensure policies covering equal opportunities and discrimination are up to date and to provide adequate training to managers on how to recognise and deal with potential issues before the escalate.

Richard Prentis, employment law consultant at Empire HR has been advising clients to be more alert than ever to the risk of a claim "The Equality Act obviously exposes employers to a greater risk of a claim because more people than ever will be protected by discrimination legislation. However, it is possibly to mitigate risks. Provided expert advice is sought, you should be well placed to defend such a claim".

Empire HR can provide support and assistance with managing employees who are protected by the Act. In the event that an employee does place a claim, the Empire HR Advocacy Unit can defend the claim and provide representation at tribunal.