This is yet another case where the interaction of annual leave and sick leave is the issue. As many members will be aware the issue of holidays whilst on sick leave and sick leave whilst on holiday are still unresolved under the Working Time Regulations. The CIPP is disappointed to see that once again the EU feels it necessary to legislate for sickness during holidays. Whether an employer allows an employee to reclaim holidays if sick during them is a matter for the employer and the employee and company terms and conditions and not the EU or the UK government. The CIPP would support the statement that this will be a further financial burden for UK businesses at a time when they can least afford it. For payroll and HR departments this will be more administration as employers will require some form of evidence that the employee was sick and then records would need to be amended accordingly. Interestingly the Minister says that the holiday rules also need reviewing; will this be further administration for employers as a change or not?
LONG-RUNNING LOCAL AUTHORITY EQUAL PAY CASE TO PROCEED TO TRIBUNAL
4 July 2012
Scotland's longest-running local authority equal pay case is to receive a full employment tribunal hearing after the tribunal found that its job evaluation scheme did not comply with the provisions of the Equal Pay Act. South Lanarkshire Council is "the only large council in Scotland" which has refused to settle ongoing equal pay cases with over 2,400 current and former female employees according to Fox Cross, the law firm representing the women. The cases relate to the historical payment of performance-related bonuses to workers in typically male professions, such as refuse collectors and street cleaners, while workers in typically female professions such as cleaners and care workers received no such bonuses. Similar cases have already arisen in local authorities across the UK. Each has so far ended in a settlement, including a test case involving dinner ladies and female care workers with Sheffield City Council which was settled in September 2011 just before it was due to be considered by the Supreme Court. Under the Equal Pay Act, now incorporated into the Equality Act, it can be an absolute defence to an equal pay claim if an employer has evaluated both the jobs in question and the jobs of male 'comparators' under an unbiased job evaluation scheme. This means that where an appropriate job evaluation has been carried out, an employment tribunal cannot carry out further "outside scrutiny" of an employer's pay processes, even if the equal pay claim is "well founded". However, the tribunal said that the council's process was "unreliable" as it focused on a limited number of tasks rather than on the whole job and did not provide sufficient explanations as to how the scheme scored particular tasks. In addition, the scheme was confusing with even the authority's own management claiming a "limited understanding" of the process. The council opted out of the national pay and grading scheme implemented by most local authorities in favour of its own in-house process. "By analysing individual tasks, the [South Lanarkshire scheme] fails to measure the job as a whole," the judgment said. "It is a different method of job evaluation to that described in [the Equal Pay Act] where the analytical process applies factors to the job of the claimant and her comparators."
CIPP Policy News Journal
12/04/2013, Page 49 of 362
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker