The Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) have announced that they do not intend to appeal the decision of Hickinbottom J, handed down on 6 March 2013 (Please read our previous article).
Welcome to the February 2013 edition of Employment Eye our monthly newsletter with information on the latest employment law developments and how they should be implemented.
This month’s news round-up is brought to you by Alastair Currie and includes the latest news on: TUPE (whether it is ‘static’ or ‘dynamic’); whistleblowing; changes to unfair dismissal as a result of the recent BNP case on politically motivated dismissals; details of new guidance following the recent Eweida case on religious discrimination; and details of new developments on collective redundancy, family friendly rights and settlement agreements.
In a follow-up to our recent alert on the report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry, Julian Hoskins discusses the practical impact of the report on workforce issues, in a Q&A with Carlton Sadler - the Bevan Brittan Senior Associate who led the team advising one of the core participants in the Inquiry, the Care Quality Commission.
In
Lockwood v Department of Work and Pensions, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that an enhanced redundancy payment for older workers did not amount to direct age discrimination, when objectively justified by a strong social policy objective. In this case, the strong social policy objective was the provision of a 'financial cushion' for older workers that reflected the extra difficulties they experienced after losing their jobs. George Pennington explains more.
Things rarely stand still in the housing market and 2013 is no different. Our quarterly publication of Housing Landscape aims to help professionals in housing to understand key issues and to keep up with all changes in the market. Our spring edition of Housing Landscape is now available and ready for download.
ECO represents a significant opportunity for local authorities and registered providers on the one hand and for energy companies and third party contractors and service companies on the other. The big six energy companies are seeking to work directly with those public authorities who have housing stock to see what ECO can be applied to that stock.
There are, however, a number of factors for local authorities and registered providers to consider carefully before taking the first offer made by an obligated energy supplier.
At the end of January, HM Treasury and IUK jointly published the "Infrastructure Procurement Routemap - a guide to improving delivery capabilities".
Aimed "primarily at the sponsor and client organisations that develop major projects and programmes, long term capital investment plans and publicly procured mega-projects", it is already being adopted by the likes of Crossrail, Network Rail and London Underground. The Routemap sets out a four-stage process to be followed before commencing the procurement of any major infrastructure project or programme.
All local authorities with housing responsibilities must prepare a report under the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995 by 31 March 2013, setting out “the local energy conservation measures that a local authority – or groups of authorities – consider practical, cost effective, and likely to significantly improve the energy efficiency of residential accommodation in its area”. Time is running out to finalise the reports ahead of publishing them on the relevant local authority’s website and sending a copy to the Secretary of State.
The EU Commission formally approved the UK Government's support of its Green Deal initiative on 5 February 2013 and found that this support is in line with EU rules on state aid and will ultimately assist competition.