Comment - Employment Law News Autumn 2003

01 October 2003

These are challenging and often uncertain times for employers. Whilst regulation (exemplified by the raft of ‘family friendly’ policies covered in our Spring 2003 edition, and new discrimination laws on religion, belief and sexual orientation due in December) has grabbed headlines and will doubtless have worked its way into HR policy, it would be easy to overlook the impact of current case law and the advent of fundamentally new concepts into UK industrial relations.

Case law continues to shape and change our understanding of existing legislation. It also has a tendency to precipitate themes which only prospective legislation had been expected to address. In this issue, we take a look at how the courts have addressed certain aspects of holiday pay within the context of the Working Time Regulations. We also review the likely impact of age discrimination laws, a topic highlighted by the recent case of Secretary of State v Rutherford & Bentley.

In other respects, the future is now disconcertingly close. Close enough, as regards prospective new laws on the information and consultation of employees, that medium and large-sized employers would be well advised to begin to address now what it all means for them. With less than 18 months to go before the start of their phased introduction, and with questions still unanswered, we review the current state of play and the implications for business.

As in all issues of our Newsletter, we aim to give just a flavour of what's afoot. Employers face much more, in both breadth and depth of issues, than we can address here, but through the series we strive to convey a developing picture of the changing employment landscape.

We hope you find it informative and helpful, and welcome your feedback.

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