Employment law stories in the news – 07.10.2013 to 13.10.2013

hmctsIn the latest of our series on employment law stories in the news this week, we take a look recent revelations that Kingston Council has paid more than £50,000 to seven former staff members who left their employment by “mutual consent”, Bromley Council being taken to court over staff pay negotiations and a recent study into age discrimination in the workplace

  1. Kingston Council pays £52,000 to seven former staff members who left by ‘mutual agreement’ – Kingston Council has handed pay-offs to seven former staff members worth an estimated total of more than £52,500 since January, the Surrey Comet has learned. In each case, the employee signed a confidentiality agreement forbidding details of the settlement to be made public (The Kingston Guardian)
  2. Bromley Council being taken to court – Bromley Council is being taken to court over staff pay negotiations. As News Shopper reported in August, employees’ contracts are changing as a result of the council becoming a commissioning authority, which could lead to virtually all services being outsourced (The News Shopper)
  3. Ofsted: ‘relax rules on declaring criminal convictions’ – Ministers should scrap the existing “one size fits all” approach to criminal convictions because it acts as a “clear barrier to employment”, it was claimed (The Telegraph)
  4. Stress and depression on the up amongst staff – Data from the forthcoming annual absence management report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Simply Health reveals almost 40pc of organisations identified an increase in the amount of time being taking off by staff because of the stress (The Telegraph)
  5. Legal & General gets tough on all-male boards with warning to FTSE-100 firms – One of the City’s biggest fund managers – Legal & General – has warned that it will vote against the chairman of any FTSE  100 company that persists with an all-male board after the government’s two-year deadline for board diversity (The Guardian)
  6. Home Office looks at ‘bounty’ plan for corporate whistleblowers – Whistleblowers in the UK who uncover economic crime would be paid for information under US-style proposals put forward by the government, potentially leading to a surge of white-collar informants seeking big payouts (The Financial Times)
  7. Police colluded in secret plan to blacklist 3,200 building workers – Police officers across the country supplied information on workers to a blacklist operation run by Britain’s biggest construction companies, the police watchdog has told lawyers representing victims (The Guardian)
  8. Kidderminster mum’s ‘sex discrimination’ claim fails – A Kidderminster recruitment firm has successfully opposed a compensation claim by a Polish mother in the town who alleged her work stopped after revealing she was three months pregnant (The Kidderminster Shuttle)
  9. One in three older adults reports age discrimination – Many older adults report being discriminated against due to their age, according to a new study (Reuters)
  10. Government told its new pension system is ‘not fit for purpose’ – The UK’s new pension saving system is not “fit for purpose” at a time when retirement prospects in the UK are more uncertain than ever and state pensions are being slashed, a leading report warns today (The Independent)