In Brief: Important Updates from February 2020

A number of useful articles were added to the Legal Island Employment Law Hub throughout the months of January and February 2020. Here is a quick recap of some of the recent developments within the employment law sphere:

As Early Conciliation was introduced into NI on the 27^th January we pulled together all the resources you’ll need to navigate this new dispute resolution process which can be accessed here.

Employment implications of the recent MOT cancellations are considered by Johanna Cunningham, Arthur Cox in the First Tuesday Q&A.  Johanna has also answered questions on covert recording by an employee and calculating holiday entitlement for a part-time worker whose work pattern changes.

Two complex scenarios were dealt with by the team at Tughans including dealing with an anonymous complaint about drug use by a colleague and dealing with a situation where an employee is able to return to work from sick leave on lighter duties but there are none available.

The Back to Basic’s video series includes a range of short videos on subjects such as:

• Key Differences Between NI & ROI Employment Law
• When is Suspension Safe?
• TUPE: Key Differences between NI & ROI Cross Border Transfers

A new contribution to the hub is the DWF Equality Updates and in the first update, Andrew Lightburn discusses a range of equality issues from time limits, ECHR guidance on sexual harassment, menopause and equal pay.   On a similar note Joanne Lightburn from Jones Cassidy Brett Solicitors wrote an article on the impact of the recent ‘Ethical Veganism’ case in NI.

As the Government published its official policy statement on how the new immigration system will work, Conor McCroy, Cleaver Fulton Rankin outlines what this will mean in practice.  You can also listen to recent podcasts with Conor here.  

Kevin McVeigh, Elliott Duffy Garrett considers the impact of the Safeway Ltd v Newton & Safeway Pension Trustees Ltd case in which the CJEU ruled that retroactive equalisation of normal pension age was not permitted.

Leeanne Armstrong provides guidance on Social Media and IT and Communications Policies in her regular monthly feature.

Some key stories from our weekly reviews include:

• Derry City and Strabane Council has introduced a workplace menopause policy
• As the Stormont Executive resumes business it was announced that Parental Bereavement Leave would be introduced in NI.
• The Supreme Court heard the Mencap case on payments for sleep overs and we await this important judgement.
• The NIO has indicated that there will be no 'opt out' clause for service providers when it comes to performing or providing services for same sex marriage ceremonies in NI.
• The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal in the case of  Hextall v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, confirming in effect that employers are allowed to offer enhanced maternity pay without providing the equivalent benefits through Shared Parental Leave.

Weekly reviews are available here.

You can listen again here to our Employment Law at 11 webinars with Seamus McGranaghan, O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors and register for the next in the series on the 6^th March where we will discuss the employment implications of the Coronavirus outbreak.