Discrimination on the Grounds of “Environmentalism”?
Back in 2003 the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003 were amended so that protection from discrimination was extended to cover not only religious beliefs or those "similar" to religious beliefs, but philosophical beliefs as well. What does this mean? A recent case has decided that a "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations".
Tim Nicholson sought to pursue a claim for unfair dismissal under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, which covers "any religion, religious belief, or philosophical belief".
In March, Nicholson was given permission to proceed with his claim at an employment tribunal, but his employer, Grainger, appealed against this decision, saying his environmental beliefs amounted to a political view, not a philosophical one. But Nicholson's eco-friendly views were ruled to be philosophical beliefs, and he is therefore allowed to bring a tribunal case for unfair dismissal against his employer on the basis that his environmental beliefs were the reason behind a decision to make him redundant from the firm in 2008.
What does this mean? It re-emphasises the need for employer’s to take ideas and suggestions from employee’s seriously - for example the ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling facilities or offering low-carbon travel – and base any decisions on genuine organisational needs rather than assumptions or prejudice.
Campaign against Plans to Scrap Childcare Voucher Tax Exemptions
In September Gordon Brown announced that tax relief on childcare vouchers would be stopped by 2015, with the resulting savings to be used to fund free nursery places for a quarter of a million two-year-olds.
A group of 16 voucher firms are said to have had met to discuss the best way to fight the government's proposals. The providers will lobby government ministers to raise awareness of the facts surrounding the uptake of childcare vouchers and combat the view that the tax exemptions only help more affluent families.
It’s freezing out there– so what is forecast for pay reviews?
There is considerable speculation as to how pay levels might change in the months ahead. Is it a freeze for all or some, what will happen in the public sector, will the 1.2% increase in the minimum wage in October have an effect, will increasing inflation bite or will the cold hand of recession win out?
According to a recent national pay award survey, the median basic pay settlement for the three months ending October 2009 was 1.2% (the same as the minimum wage increase). This is the first time that awards have surpassed 1% since the three months to 31 March 2009. But not everyone is benefiting. In manufacturing the median pay award for the same period was just 0.4%. Around 35% of all pay reviews are resulting in pay freezes. The vast majority of deals are lower than they were last year.
With the economy still in recession, and with firms continuing to rein in salary costs, pay awards look set to remain weak. However, more than two-thirds of employers use some measure of inflation to guide their wage settlements, so inflation is likely to have a significant impact on pay awards in 2010. The bad news is that the RPI is set to rise sharply from an average -0.5% over the third quarter of 2009 to around 2.5% by the Spring.
