Tipping, gratuities, cover and service charges
The government has confirmed its intention to legislate so that tips left for workers are retained by them in full. Measures to be included in the forthcoming Employment Bill will include:
- Employers will not be permitted to make any deductions from tips received by their staff, including administration charges, other than those required by tax law.
- Employers to distribute tips in a way that is fair and transparent, with a written policy on tips, and a record of how tips have been dealt with. Employers will be able to distribute tips via a tronc, and a tip must be dealt with no later than the end of the month following the month in which it was paid by the customer.
- Workers to be able to make a request for information relating to an employer’s tipping record. Employers to respond within four weeks.
- Employers to have regard to a statutory Code of Practice on Tipping.
The new rules are expected to come into force no earlier than one year after the Bill has been enacted. No date set for the enactment of the Bill.
Survey finds half of UK working mothers had their flexible working request rejected or only partly accepted.
Half of almost 13,000 working mothers who responded to a Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Mother Pukka study on flexible work said their employer had rejected, or only partly accepted, their request for flexible working. The vast majority of respondents to the survey who were working flexibly said they faced discrimination and disadvantage at work as a result. The report found that respondents were worried about asking for flexible working with 42% being concerned about their employer’s reaction.
The Govt. has just published a consultation document on flexible working (see below).
Disability discrimination and menopausal symptoms
The EAT has recently held that a tribunal was wrong to find that an employee was not a disabled person because her menopausal symptoms did not have more than a minor or trivial effect on her day-to-day activities. The judgment recorded that the employee had given evidence that her symptoms included hot flushes and sweating, palpitations and anxiety, night sweats and sleep disturbance, fatigue, poor concentration, urinary problems and headaches. She had advised the tribunal that her symptoms led to her forgetting to attend events, meetings and appointments, losing personal possessions, forgetting to use the handbrake on her car and forgetting to lock it, leaving the cooker and iron on and leaving the house without locking doors and windows, spending long periods in bed due to fatigue and exhaustion, and experiencing dizziness, incontinence and joint pain. The EAT held that there was no explanation as to how the tribunal had concluded that this evidence, which it did not reject, did not demonstrate an effect on the employee’s day-to-day activities that was more than minor or trivial.
The likely impact of AI on the UK labour market
BEIS has published a report prepared by PwC, The Potential Impact of Artificial Intelligence on UK Employment and the Demand for Skills. The report considers two main questions:
- Whether AI and related technologies (such as robots, drones and autonomous vehicles) will follow historical patterns by triggering significant structural labour market change.
- How large the disruption to labour markets from AI will be and what form it will take.
The report concludes that, AI and related technologies may lead to significant changes in the structure of employment across occupations, sectors and regions of the UK. The effects may be relatively small over the next five years but could become more material over the next ten to 20 years. They may add to income inequalities by tending to favour people with higher education and skills levels, who also tend to have higher earnings levels.
The report estimates that there will be net job gains in professional occupations, with nearly half the increase being in jobs for health professionals and the other half spread between scientists, researchers, engineers, technologists, educators, businesspeople, media professionals and civil servants.
Managerial occupations, for which tasks involved are difficult to automate, and occupations requiring “human touch” (such as caring or leisure) are also likely to experience net job creation.
Other occupations are likely to experience changing patterns over time, with sales and customer services experiencing the highest rate of job displacement over the next five years, administration experiencing particularly high displacement in five to ten years and manual occupations (including taxi drivers) experiencing high rates of displacement but probably not before the 2030s
Half of over-50s believe their employment prospects have been adversely affected by age discrimination
A report by Legal and General Retail Retirement and the Centre for Economics and Business Research has found that 52% of surveyed job seekers over the age of 50 believed their age made employers less likely to hire them. This was due to perceptions that they were too overqualified, too close to retirement age, more expensive to hire, or a perceived or actual generational skills gap. It is believed by those who were surveyed that these perceptions made employers less likely to invite them to interview or hire them. The percentage of people who felt their age put them at a disadvantage in securing a new role increased from 46% of those aged between 50 and 59 to 64% for those between 60 and 69.
COVID-19: poll suggests 70% of employers intend to mandate vaccinations for their workforce
A recent survey of 400 HR directors suggests that 70% of employers will require staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19. One-third of those surveyed said that only vaccinated staff would be able to return to the office. Only 15% of those surveyed stated that vaccination status would have no impact on their decision to return a staff member to the workplace. In addition, some companies have already implemented other vaccine-related policies, such as reducing sick pay for unvaccinated staff who are required to self-isolate . This is something Morisons have implemented https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/09/morrisons-profit-drops-as-firm-warns-over-supply-chain-crisis. Unite the Union has responded that such strong-arm tactics will result in issues around equalities, human rights and ethical breaches.
Charitable fostering agency policy on homosexual behaviour constitutes unlawful discrimination
The Court of Appeal has held in a recent case that an independent fostering agency’s recruitment policy that required carers to refrain from homosexual behaviour was discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and incapable of being justified.
The independent fostering agency involved in the case operates as a charity adhering to evangelical Christian principles. It had a recruitment policy requiring foster carers to refrain from “homosexual behaviour”. In a unanimous judgment the Court of Appeal held that Agency’s policy was a clear instance of direct and indirect discrimination because of sexual orientation and that the policy was not capable of being justified as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. It emphasised that courts should be slow to accept that prohibiting fostering agencies from discriminating against homosexuals was a disproportionate limitation on their right to manifest their religion.
Consultation published on making flexible working a “day one” right for employees
The government has published a consultation document proposing various reforms to the current right for employees to request flexible working.
The consultation notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has required many of us to change how we work, and has shifted the way we think about flexible working. It has led to a greater recognition of the need for flexibility to balance work with other commitments, for example childcare or looking after family members who are unwell.
The government has considered whether to introduce a right for employees to work flexibly, removing the ability of an employer to turn down a request. However, in the light of the broad range of individual needs and the wide variety of business models, this is not regarded as achievable. However, the government is keen to encourage genuine two-sided flexibility. This could be achieved by a rebalancing of the current framework so that it better supports a wider discussion of what may be possible, rather than the current focus of what is not possible.
The consultation sets out five proposals for reshaping the existing framework:
- Making the right to request flexible working a “day one” right.
- Making changes, if necessary, to the eight business reasons for refusing a request to work flexibly.
- Requiring the employer to suggest alternatives to the arrangement suggested by the employee.
- Changing the administrative process underpinning the right to request flexible working.
- Raising awareness of the existing right of employees to request a temporary flexible working arrangement.
Next steps
The consultation closes on 1 December 2021. Responses can be submitted online or by email to labourmarketparticipation@beis.gov.uk.
COVID-19: a fifth of employers have changed terms and conditions since start of pandemic
A survey conducted by the CIPD has shown that 22% of employers have made changes to their employees’ terms and conditions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Common changes have included terms relating to workplace, hours of work and pay levels. Implementing changes can be very difficult and, recently, employees of the Weetabix Food Company have announced a series of two-day strikes over dismissal and re-engagement proposals that are alleged to leave them £5,000 a year worse off.
