The International & European Associations Congress, the seventh in the series, takes place in July 2012 at the ACC Liverpool. Mark the date in your diary now for Europe’s leading and largest association specialist congress with over 400 attendees.
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill has now been published and presented to Parliament. From an employment law perspective, it includes measures to improve the employment tribunal system, as well as provisions on various non-employment matters.
Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Bill will improve the employment tribunal system by encouraging parties to come together to settle their dispute before an employment tribunal claim is lodged, through ACAS early conciliation and greater use of settlement agreements. It will also make the determination of less complex disputes quicker and cheaper for employers and employees alike, through a new ‘Rapid Resolution’ scheme. Taking away the fear of employment tribunals will, according to the Government, give business more confidence to take on new staff.
The Government has finally published the Beecroft report which was compiled and submitted to the Government last year on proposals for employment law reform, having decided that it is in the public interest to allow people to have access to its content. The report was submitted to the Government in October 2011 but has not been officially published until now. It proposes reform to a vast number of areas of employment law, including unfair dismissal, discrimination law, employment tribunal process and awards, pensions, the criminal record checking system, work permit checks, TUPE, collective redundancies and equal pay audits.
As part of its commitment to ease the burden of regulation on businesses, the Government has launched two consultation documents on proposals to remove certain provisions in the Equality Act 2010. There are three specific statutory provisions under the spotlight.
The first proposal is to remove the provision in the Equality Act 2010 which make employers liable for repeated discriminatory harassment of their employees by external third parties over whom they do not have direct control, such as their customers, clients or suppliers, where inadequate steps have been taken by the employer to prevent the harassment (section 40(2) to (4) of the Act). However, repealing this provision would not affect the other avenues of legal redress which an employee may potentially use if subjected to conduct that would count as third party harassment, for example, a constructive dismissal claim (where the employer has breached the implied term of mutual trust and confidence by failing to take steps to protect the employee from the offensive behaviour) or a personal injury claim (where personal injury has been suffered by the employee as a result of the harassment). In addition, if the reason for the employer’s inaction is itself related to a protected characteristic covered by discrimination law (sex, race, etc.) that can still constitute unlawful harassment even if this provision is repealed. That consultation closes on 7 August 2012.
The Queen’s Speech has set out the Government’s plans for the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which, from an employment law perspective, will overhaul the workplace dispute resolution system to facilitate the earlier resolution of disputes via a more efficient and streamlined employment tribunal system.
The Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill has now received Royal Assent. The Act suspends restrictions on large shops' Sunday trading hours for eight weeks from 22 July to 9 September 2012 during the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Outsourcing has become essential to many businesses over the past 20 years, and particularly in recent times with employers often tending to favour outsourcing over engaging full-time staff. Associations typically outsource membership management, administration, marketing and accounting functions to specialists, freeing up in-house resource to develop strategy, plan for future events and address policy matters.
The EU Cookie Law deadline of May 26th is upon us, all websites must conform to the EU Cookie Law directive. As you may know, cookies are small files stored on a user’s computer by the browser when they visit a website, and can be used to log pages visited or track user browsing patterns.
More than 300 association executives from around the world took part in a full day of professional development and networking at this month’s 10th IMEX Association Day in Frankfurt. Delegates stepped back from day-to-day business to discuss future strategies and current challenges with their peers and senior industry leaders. The newly designed programme of events featured various ‘deep dive’ and workshop sessions, covering issues such as trends in technology, the meaning of community in the 21st century, managing change and sustainability as a driver for success.
In the all important drive to engage with members and improve member retention, e-marketing is proving to be an essential tool. Keeping members informed of key activities, relevant legislation, industry events and of course, member benefits, is an efficient and cost effective way of reinforcing the value of membership.