Employment Law Watch : Employment & Labor Lawyer & Attorney : Reed Smith Law Firm

In this alert we outline the main changes in UK employment law this October. The most notable piece of legislation coming into force this October is the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, but there are quite a few possible changes afoot. These include a forthcoming increase to the qualifying period for employees to bring unfair dismissal claims from one year to two years, as well as introducing fees for lodging employment tribunal claims.

Agency Workers Regulations

On 1 October 2011, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 will come into effect. These controversial new regulations (the Regulations) will have a dramatic impact on the relationship between agency workers, agencies and hirers. They will provide increased protection to agency workers, giving them from day one equal access to facilities and amenities at work and the right to receive information about new positions within the hirer. Most importantly, after working for a qualifying period of twelve weeks, agency workers also have the same right to basic working and employment conditions as those enjoyed by workers recruited directly by the hirer. Both the hirer and the recruitment agency may be liable for breach, depending on the type of claim.

What you should be doing:

• make an assessment of the skills required for roles carried out by your agency workers and your employees to assess whether the agency workers have an appropriate comparator for the purposes of the Regulations;
• carry out an audit of your agency workers, paying particular attention to their basic terms of employment, and comparing them to the terms of “comparable” employees;
• provide to agencies appropriate information of comparable workers (including standard terms of employment, pay scales and holiday entitlements);
• put in place HR systems to accurately calculate the qualifying period for each agency worker;
• consider mechanisms to mitigate the impact of the Regulations and take advice as necessary.

For more information concerning the basic rights of hirers and agency workers, please see our client alert.

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Last week, the IRS announced the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (the “VCSP”), allowing eligible employers to voluntarily resolve U.S. past worker classification issues and reclassify workers as employees for federal employment tax purposes. Reclassifying workers as employees, however, raises many issues other than employment tax issues including, for example: retirement benefit plan issues; health and welfare benefit plan issues; and state tax classification, unemployment tax, and workers’ compensation issues. To learn more about the VCSP, please click here.

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This post was written by Thomas Ince and Carl de Cicco.

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (“AWR”) are due to come into force on 1 October 2011. The AWR put in place the requirements of the controversial EU Temporary Agency Workers’ Directive, which has to be implemented by 5^th December this year. Last week, rumours circulated in the media that there may be a last minute “watering down” of the AWR by the present government. This seems unlikely, particularly because the AWR has already been scrutinised carefully by the new coalition government after they came into power. The Conservatives were unhappy about the proposed 12 week qualifying period which was not set out in the EU Directive. However, having conducted a review, nothing was changed because the AWR was based on an agreement between the CBI and the TUC made prior to the election and could not be changed. We will, of course, update you on any last minute changes to the AWR, but in the meantime we have prepared below a short summary of the basic elements of the AWR.

The AWR will apply to the relationships between agency workers, agencies and hirers. They offer protection to agency workers, providing them with equal access to facilities and amenities at work, the right to receive information about new positions within the hirer. After working for a qualifying period of twelve weeks, agency workers would also have the right to basic working and employment conditions that are equal to those enjoyed by workers recruited directly by the hirer. In May 2011 the government published guidance (the “Guidance”) to help hirers and agencies understand the implications of the AWR and their responsibilities under them.

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This post was written by Joel S. Barras and John A. DiNome.

Recently and just prior to the expiration of National Labor Relations Board Chairman Wilma Liebman’s term, the Board issued two decisions that reverse the rights of employees to challenge the majority status of their unions following a voluntary recognition of the union by the employer or a sale or merger involving their employer. These decisions represent yet another example of the Board’s ideological shift towards creating a more union-friendly legal environment under President Obama’s administration. 

In Lamons Gasket Co., 357 NLRB No. 72 (August 26, 2011) the Board reversed its 2007 decision in Dana Corp.  Under Dana Corp., 351 NLRB 434 (2007), the Board required employers who voluntarily recognized unions to post a notice to their employees for 45 days informing them of the voluntary recognition. The notice had to contain employee rights and options regarding that voluntary recognition such as challenging that recognition. During that 45-day period, for instance, employees could file a decertification petition to reverse the employer’s voluntary recognition and vote to expressly reject union representation. Alternatively, another union could file a petition seeking to represent the same employees.

As a result of the Board’s decision in Lamons Gasket, however, neither the employees nor a rival union may challenge the recognized union’s status until a “reasonable period of time” after the voluntary recognition. This reasonable period of time ranges from six months to a year, depending on the circumstances.

In UGL-UNICCO Service Company, 357 NLRB No. 76 (August 26, 2011), the Board overruled another of its prior decisions, MV Transportation, 337 NLRB 770 (2002). Under MV Transportation, after a sale or merger of a unionized company, the bargaining unit employees or a rival union had the option to immediately challenge the union’s representative status in a Board-conducted secret ballot election. As a result of UGL-UNICCO, however, the incumbent union’s status as the employees’ bargaining representative is only subject to challenge after a “reasonable period of time” following the sale or merger. If the employer agrees to follow the existing collective bargaining agreement, this period is six months. If. Instead, the employer exercises its right to set new initial terms and conditions of employment, the bar to challenging the union’s status can be extended to a year.

Employers need to consider the impact of these cases when contemplating mergers or acquisitions and in deciding whether to adopt an existing collective bargaining agreement or unilaterally set initial terms and conditions of employment. 

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This post was written by William Sutton and Marc Bergen.

The new pensions auto-enrolment duties will begin to apply to employers from October 2012 through to September 2016 (depending on the number of people employed). Although some of the detail around the new regime is yet to be finalised, many employers are beginning to put this on the agenda to make sure they are well prepared for their new duties. The first client alert, issued by Reed Smith's UK pensions group and aimed, predominantly at pension trustees, sets out an overview of what those duties entail. The alert also covers the abolition of the default retirement age and its impact on pension provision/insured benefits, as well as a round up of issues relating to the Bribery Act 2010, early access to pension savings, contracting out in money purchase pension schemes and other topics.

A second more comprehensive client alert on the new pensions duties, which is primarily aimed at employers, is also available here.

For more information on any of these topics, please refer to Simon Hartley, head of Reed Smith's pension group, or your usual contact at Reed Smith.

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