Congratulations to Lily Grayson
Big congratulations to Lily Grayson of our Haverhill office on passing her Pitmans Typing exam
Discrimination Claims Against Employers.
It is the Equality Act 2010 that establishes the ability to bring action for unlawful discrimination. It is only in relation to a “protected characteristic” that action can be brought. The reason for the unfavourable treatment/discrimination must be due to a “protected characteristic” for the individual to be afforded protection under the act. So what is a “protected characteristic”? The Act dictates that the following are:-
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and Civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
Each protected characteristic has a statutory definition under the Act and therefore must be looked at carefully before unlawful discrimination can be established. Interpreting the meaning of each protected characteristic gives rise to various case law.
A recent case heard by an Employment Tribunal on 10th September 2019 (Conisbee v Crossley Farms Ltd and others) held that vegetarianism was not a “belief” qualifying for protection under the Act. Mr Conisbee alleged that he had suffered discrimination on the ground of religion or belief, his belief being vegetarianism. The Employment Tribunal held that although his belief was genuinely held and was worthy of respect in democratic society it failed to meet the other legal hurdles for protection under the Act. In their judgement the Tribunal ruled that it did not have a similar status or cogency to religious beliefs.
This decision does not have to be followed by other Tribunals in the future but is an interesting approach to what amounts to a “belief” for the purpose of the Equality Act 2010.
Who is protected? Under the Act there is a wide range of potential claimants for discrimination claims. This includes the following:-
- Employees
- Job applicants
- Contract Workers
- Agency Workers
- The police
- Individuals in a business partnership
If you consider you have suffered unlawful discrimination then please seek our advice. Do not delay. There are strict time limits for bringing a claim to an Employment Tribunal, whereby claims must be brought within three months of the date the discrimination occurred.
Jennifer Carpenter
Employment Specialist solicitor
Haverhill Schools Career Fair 2019
Adams Harrison supported the recent Haverhill Schools Career Fair held at the Samuel Ward School.
Children from three different schools in the area, Samuel Ward, Castle Manor and Churchill, attended the event run throughout the day on Friday 20th September, Students were given the opportunity to find out about what opportunities there were for them in the workplace.
The Police, NHS, Army, Customs and a host of other stands were there for the students to come along and find out what is involved and what qualifications they would need to be accepted.
In the photo is Practice Manager Sue Lawton addressing a group of students. Sue and Anton Bilinski, a Chartered Legal Executive, had a lot of enquiries from students looking to go into the law. Matt Hancock the local MP for the area attended to officially open the event.
After the Fair we received the following feedback, from Glen Todd of New Anglia LEP
Thank you all for attending and supporting with the first Haverhill Careers Fair on Friday. Your participation was very much appreciated by the students and staff at Samuel Ward Academy, Castle Manor Academy and Churchill Special Free School. In all we had approximately 1500 pupils attend on the day and we received extremely positive feedback from students and teachers.
The significance of your attendance to the young people I believe can be highlighted by the below research.
“Young adults who have greater levels of contact with employers while at school are five times less likely to become not in education, employer or training (NEET) and can expect, when in full-time employment, to earn up to 18% more than peers who had no such employer engagement.” https://www.educationandemployers.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/its_who_you_meet_final_26_06_12.pdf
Prescriptive Easements: What Are They?
A prescriptive easement is a legal right enjoyed over another’s freehold property and which is obtained through long use. It is similar to adverse possession, but in this case relates to a right to use another person’s property in a particular way rather than claiming ownership of the land. The long use is combined with a belief (often a fallacy) that the right was originally granted in a deed.
More…
Chartered Legal Executive Cathy Buck. Adams Harrison Haverhill office
To get a copy of Cathy’s full article please send us a message via our contact form below.
Bubblerush 2019
Adams Harrison are pleased to be sponsors of the EACH Bubblerush event taking place in Saffron Walden on Sunday 29th September 2019.
If you are interested in taking part please go to the Bubblerush site https://www.each.org.uk/get-involved/events-diary/details/saffron-walden-bubble-rush-2019 to sign up.
Tenant Fees Act 2019
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 came into force on 1st June 2019.
Its provisions apply with immediate effect to all tenancies created on or after the 1st June 2019 (assured and assured shorthold tenancies including student lettings) and will apply to all other existing assured and assured shorthold tenancies from the 1st June 2020. The prohibitions apply to arrangements with a tenant, the tenant’s guarantor and a person acting on behalf of the tenant
The Act permits a landlord only to charge the tenant for the following under the terms of an assured/assured shorthold tenancy:
- Rent;
- A tenancy deposit which is capped to 5 weeks’ rent if the annual rent is £50,000 per annum or less and up to 6 weeks’ rent of the annual rent exceeds £50,000.
- Holding deposit (capped at 1 week’s rent) to reserve a property before the grant of a tenancy;
- Event of a default. Payments for loss of keys or other security devices or failure to pay rent on time or other breach of the tenancy. For failure to pay on time, the sums recoverable are limited to interest on the late payment of rent and the rent has to have been outstanding for 14 days or more for the interest to become due;
- Payment for the variation, assignment or novation of the tenancy (but this is capped at £50 or reasonable costs);
- Payment on early termination of the tenancy (eg surrender fee);
- Council tax (and other utilities);
- TV licence;
- Telecoms.
Landlords and letting agents cannot require tenants to make any payment that is not a permitted payment. Prohibited payments include:
- Tenancy set up fees;
- Viewing fees;
- Credit check fees;
- Inventory check fees;
- Check out fees;
- Fees for professional cleaning services.
Trading Standards is the enforcement authority for the prohibitions applying to landlords and letting agents and repayment obligations in relation to holding deposits. An enforcement authority can impose a financial penalty and require a landlord or letting agent to repay the tenant or relevant person any outstanding prohibited payment or holding deposit plus interest. The Act also makes provision for the tenant or relevant person to recover unlawfully charged fees from the First-tier Tribunal.
It is important to note that a section 21 notice cannot be given to recover possession of the property until the landlord has repaid any unlawfully charged fees or unlawfully retained holding deposit.
If you are unsure or require further advice on these changes and how they can affect you please contact Anton Bilinski who is able to guide you through these changes and act for you when a landlord or tenant dispute arises.
Anton Bilinski
Legal Executive
Litigation Department
What Should You Be Paid Whilst On Holiday?
We are currently in the midst of a very popular time to take annual leave from work, but the law regulating and dictating what someone should be paid whilst on holiday from work is far from clear.
The Working Time Regulations 1998 (“the Regulations”) state that all workers have the right to 5.6 weeks paid leave each year. This equates to 28 days for a full time worker, including all public and bank holidays of which there are 8 each year. However, some workers are entitled, possibly under a contract of employment, to annual leave in excess of the statutory minimum.
Under the Regulations workers are entitled to be paid during statutory annual leave at a rate of a week’s pay for each week of leave. The question then is what is a “week’s pay”? How it is calculated depends on a number of factors and in particular distinction is made between a worker with normal working hours and those with no normal working hours. However, recent cases in the European Court of Justice that have been applied in the Employment Appeal Tribunal have stated that a worker needs to receive their “normal remuneration” during periods of statutory annual leave. This means that the way in which we calculate a week’s pay under the Employment Rights Act 1996 in the UK is incompatible with The Working Time Directive.
Article 7 of the Working Time Directive states that workers must have the right to “paid annual leave” but dos not state how this should be calculated. In the case of Williams and others v British Airways Plc [2011] the European Court of Justice held that a worker is not just entitled to basic pay but any remuneration that is “intrinsically linked to the performance of the tasks which the worker is required to carry out under his contract of employment and in respect of which a monetary amount, included in the calculation of his total remuneration, is provided”. Also those that relate to the “personal and professional status” of the worker. This would include payments relating to a worker’s seniority, length of service and professional qualifications.
The idea is that you should not be worse off financially as a result of exercising your statutory right to take holiday. With this in mind contractual commission and bonuses should be taken into account when calculating a week’s pay for the purpose of holiday pay. Otherwise you could be deterred from taking time off work due to the financial disadvantage you would be in. This was confirmed in the case of Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd and others [2014].
So, if your pay packet is lighter because you have taken some holiday this month or last it is possible that your employer has not correctly calculated your holiday pay. You may have a claim for the difference in pay. If you wanted to consider pursuing a claim seek our advice quickly as there are strict time scales for bringing such claims.
Jennifer Carpenter
Employment law specialist solicitor
Conveyancing Referral Fees
You may or may not be aware that a lot of Conveyancing legal firms pay referral fees to estate agents. In exchange for this estate agents refer Conveyancing work to them.
Typically a legal firm will pay between £40 – £200 per transaction to an estate agent, who will then refer the clients to them.
There are two main issues with this.
- The first is that the estate agents may not refer the clients to a particular firm based on that firm’s reputation but based solely on the fact that they are being paid a referral fee. In addition the client may not always be advised that a referral fee is being paid in respect of their matter and therefore may not be aware that the solicitors are effectively paying for their work, and will believe that the reason they are being referred to that practice is because they are good.
- Secondly the client also needs to be careful that they are not being charged for any referral fees by way of increased legal fees, again this is not always disclosed when applying for costs.
Adams Harrison do not pay referral fees. We pride ourselves on the fact that much of our work is repeat business from satisfied clients, or that a client has come to us having been referred to us by a member of their family, or a friend, who has used Adams Harrison for legal services in the past. See our testimonials on the website.
If a referral fee is being paid by the estate agents to your legal advisor then your legal advisor should advise you of this fact and seek your consent to the same. You need to think carefully whether you would wish to instruct a firm that has to pay for it’s work rather than relying on its reputation.
Tracy Spilsbury
Head of Residential Conveyancing
Congratulations to Tracy Bonham
Tracy Bonham of our Wills & Probate Department attained 30 years service with the practice today.
Well done Tracy, seen in the photo with the beautiful bouquet of flowers presented to her by the Partners.
Adams Harrison Sponsor Bubblerush 2019
Adams Harrison are pleased to sponsor the Bubblerush event taking place at Walden Park, Audley End Estate, Saffron Walden on Sunday 29th September 2019.
If you would like to participate in this fun event then please go to www.each.org.uk/bubblerush to sign up.
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