Uncategorized

08/11/2019.

I am writing to thank Johanna and the team at Elcons for the wonderful support and service given to Casicare as a new client. We have transferred to Elcon’s having a multiple of immediate needs as we had completed several changes in the way we operated our business.

As part of the introduction we have been given a personal and attentive service with expertise, solid advice and information that was clear and concise. We were introduced to our dedicated advisors and an insight into the philosophy and motivation of the company and how it works for a client.

In a short period of time we have reorganized our employment law arrangements with all our key managers trained and competent in current employment issues and legislation, new company handbooks, contracts and paperwork to every eventuality.

Complex issues have been dealt with effectively such as TUPE and preparation for Employment tribunals with expertise and have taken the burden off us with sound legal representation.

Professional in all aspect of their work and genuinely listen and understand the challenges of the Care sector. I would recommend anyone needing a straightforward approach with an understanding of the industry to consider Elcons. I have wasted too much time and money finding the wrong advice and now I’m satisfied I have found the best.

Janet Thompson.

Casicare.

Director.

150 employees – 2 Locations

A financial advisor has won a claim for unfair dismissal after his employer made false allegations to pressurise him into accepting an extended restrictive covenant agreement and attempted to stop him joining a potential competitor, an ET has ruled.

The Nottingham ET found Peter Ward was constructively and unfairly dismissed by Fiducia Comprehensive Financial Planning after he claimed one of its directors “blackmailed” him, or threatened to do so, unless he signed an agreement lengthening his post-termination restrictive covenants.

The judge said: “While the term ‘blackmail’ may be somewhat emotive, there is no doubt that [Fiducia] made it clear to [Ward] that if he refused to sign the new draft agreement they would pursue allegations of gross misconduct against him which would undoubtedly tarnish his professional reputation.”

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/financial-advisor-unfairly-dismissed-blackmailed-to-sign-restrictive-covenant

Employers have been reminded of their duty to make reasonable adjustments after an airline was found guilty of discrimination because it failed to reassign a flight attendant into a ground-based role following a brain tumour.

A London ET unanimously ruled that Ryanair discriminated against and constructively dismissed Margita Dworak as a consequence of its “ongoing discriminatory treatment” in relation to her disability. It found the employer repeatedly ignored requests by Dworak for reasonable adjustments and reassignment to ground-based roles, and said that asking her to apply for suitable roles through an open, standard recruitment process amounted to “not making any adjustments whatsoever”.

Judge Tobin said the failure to provide Dworak with alternative work or adjust a role to accomodate her disability amounted to disability discrimination, and that Dworak’s resignation was not “because of her illness, nor did she resign for any other reason than [Ryanair’s] intentional and continuous failure to provide her with work”.

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/flight-attendant-discriminated-against-following-brain-tumour

An employee with a job share arrangement was unfairly dismissed and suffered indirect sex discrimination after her employer attempted to change her role to a full-time position, a Sheffield ET tribunal ruled.

Capita Customer Management Services indirectly discriminated against Mrs J McBride, who was employed on a permanent part-time basis, after it failed to provide evidence when it made her job full time that doing so would ensure the role worked most effectively.

Instead, employment judge Robert Little said it appeared to the tribunal that Capita “endeavoured to distance itself from the part-time/full-time dichotomy”, and that a reasonable employer would have fully tested if a part-time or job share arrangement could fulfil the requirements of the role.

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/employee-unfairly-dismissed-after-job-share-turned-into-full-time-role

A manager at a GP practice was unfairly dismissed following allegations that she and her mother handed themselves unauthorised pay rises, an ET has ruled.

Sareet Sidhu was dismissed for gross misconduct over allegations of theft of money, removing cash from the practice, failing to follow management instructions and increasing her own pay from £24,000 to £97,000 without authorisation or justification. But the Watford ET ruled that Sidhu’s employer – Allenby Clinic/Northolt Family Practice in west London – failed to carry out a proper investigation because Sidhu was not given the opportunity to participate.

It added that Sidhu’s dismissal for increasing her salary would have been fair if a proper investigation had been conducted. Sidhu’s mother’s claims are being heard separately.

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/gp-manager-unfairly-dismissed-alleged-unauthorised-pay-rise-tribunal

A senior cancer care nurse was unfairly dismissed from his job in the NHS, and unlawfully discriminated against because of disability, an employment tribunal (ET) has ruled.

The Aberdeen tribunal found Mr J Horn – who developed a depressive illness in 2016 after feeling stressed at work during a period of staffing shortages – was unfairly dismissed on health grounds after he began a phased return to work following a long period of sick leave. It said his employer, the Grampian Health Board, dealt with the issue in an “insensitive and unreasonable” manner.

The ET found the health board made no consideration of Horn’s disability status during the process of dismissing him, which amounted to discrimination on the grounds of disability.

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/NHS-nurse-unfairly-dismissed-following-stress-induced-sick-leave-tribunal

With the Rugby Union game with England approaching fast, are you keeping your HR and Legal matters ahead of the game?” Good luck to the England’s team physiotherapist, Dave O’Sullivan at Pro-Sport Physiotherapy from all the team at Elcons, come on England!

During the Queen’s Speech on Monday 14^thOctober 2019 the government announced plans to introduce a new law which will force employers to pass on all gratuities in full and to share fairly any pooled tips. Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill, it also introduces a Code of Practice for restaurants, bars and cafes to make their systems transparent.  The Bill will enforce the requirement for employers to pass all tips to their employees.

Date TBC.

Dr David Mackereth, a contract worker at the DWP’s assessment centre refused to refer to transgender claimants by their preferred name, gender pronoun and title. He made comment “if you have a man six feet tall with a beard, who says he wants to be addressed as ‘she’ and ‘Mrs’; would you do that?”

Dr Mackereth claimed that doing what he was requested to do was at odds with his Christian faith and he would not be able to do so in good conscience.

The ET found his objection was “incompatible with human dignity” and any refusal to refer to a transgender person by their relevant pronouns would constitute unlawful discrimination or harassment under the Equality Act.

“What this case concerned is whether he was entitled to manifest those beliefs in the circumstances that applied here. He accepted that his beliefs meant that insofar as a service user was a transgender individual within the meaning of the Equality Act, that whilst he did not wish them to, his actions would cause offence and potentially breach the Equality Act.

“We find that if the service user also held a full gender recognition certificate Dr Mackereth’s position was that he would also potentially breach the Gender Recognition Act for the reasons we give above.”

Dr Mackereth intends to appeal the decision.