Ian Smith presents four employment sparklers & a rant
In the month that the government issued the annual uprating order putting up the maximum basic award/redundancy payment to £12,000 and the maximum compensatory award to £68,400 (SI 2010/2926) and also announced the immediate demise of the previous government’s code of practice on the “two-tier workforce” in TUPE contracting-out cases, we also saw considerable judicial activity—enough to gladden the frosty hearts of employment lawyers up to their briefs in snow.
The president of the EAT gave important guidance in Mehta v CSA [2010] UKEAT/127/10 on the practice of reading out witness statements (largely to the effect that it is often not necessary) which should be consulted by practitioners and employment judges, especially as he suggests that regional variations in practice need to be reconsidered.
We also had useful further guidance by the EAT in South Manchester Abbeyfield Society v Hopkins [2010] UKEAT/79/10 on the vexed but economically significant question of when time on call attracts the national minimum wage. Thus, the choice of cases for detailed consideration in this month’s rant has been particularly difficult.
