April Newsletter

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"Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want"

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is now live. Employers can apply here. NI Business Info also regularly publish useful resources for businesses and employers in Northern Ireland.

During the last few weeks, I have also published the following short articles on LinkedIn:
Pregnancy Isolation due to COVID 19 Withdrawals of offers of Employment.

Please note that the Government advice currently changes on a daily basis. You can sign up to receive the UK government updates here.

The Employment Lawyers Association recently published a very helpful paper highlighting key issues which currently need to be clarified within the current versions of the guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

Other potential useful resources for include:
CIPD- Responding to the Coronavirus
Cloisters Barristers on making virtual hearings in the Employment Tribunal work

On another note, if business is resuming, this article may be of interest to employers who wish to unfurlough staff.

Following this period, I imagine we will see more claims in relation to:

Unlawful Deduction of Wages
Breach of Contract
Discriminatory Dismissals
Unfair Redundancies

To avoid such claims, care should be taken when making decisions about the furlough scheme, payment of wages and/or redundancies.

The key employment case this month is definitely the Morrison’s decision from the Supreme Court. This decision primarily focused on the issue of vicarious liability. Take a look at this article which I co-authored with David McMillan QC. This case also raises interesting issues regarding GDPR. Indeed, the Supreme Court emphasised the fact that the employer acted promptly when they discovered the data breach. With increased home working, employers should consider their data security and have a crisis management in place in order to minimise the risks to their organisation. For any businesses in need of GDPR support, I highly recommend Briefed GDPR Compliance Specialists (https://www.briefed.pro).

⚖️ Pregnant law firm worker awarded £23k after email sacking

⚖️ Struck off junior solicitor files appeal

⚖️ Gay engineer awarded £175k for ‘nightmare’ treatment after coming out

⚖️ Tribunal awards record £4.7m to bank worker bullied over disability

Prior to lockdown, two new pieces of legislation were introduced in Northern Ireland in the employment law context:

The Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020: Updated the Rules of Procedure for Tribunals in Northern Ireland
The Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020: Introduced mandatory early conciliation for employment claims in Northern Ireland

On the 24th April 2020, the Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations NI 2020 came into operation. Where a worker is unable to take annual leave for reasons related to coronavirus, the Regulations allow for it to be carried forward and utilised in the following two leave years.

Also see:

Decisions from Northern Ireland Tribunals are published here. No substantive decisions have been published in April 2020.

The President of the Tribunals issued guidance on the 27th March 2020 stating that all hearings are now adjourned until the 1st July 2020 unless deemed urgent. Cases are however still progressing and it is positive to see colleagues making use of technology to facilitate virtual consultations.

Throughout April & May, I have signed up to attend a series of Employment Webinars. This initiative has been organised by Daniel Barnett. Each day, I publish key takeaways from each session on my LinkedIn. I also point out NI differences where appropriate. A summary of my takeaways to date can be accessed here. For anyone interested, you can still sign up. All previous sessions have been recorded and are available online. For more information, see https://employmentwebinars.co.uk.

30 April Belfast City Council- Connecting with Customers

1 May Legal Island, Employment Law at 11

7 May DLA Piper- Coronavirus and International Employment Law: Future planning and preparation

13 May Legal Island, Managing and Motivating Homeworkers in the New World of Work

19 May Nikki Alderson, Coping with COVID

April/May Employment Webinar Series

Online Dispute Resolution: the future of justice in Northern Ireland?

Given that Tribunals are now closed, I have been thinking about a new way of doing things. Check out my article recently published in Irish Legal News.

Within an employment context, I think online dispute resolution would be beneficial for:

(1) Low value claims
(2) Seeking an early resolution during conciliation stage
(3) Claims involving individuals who have been advised to shield and therefore are unable to attend Tribunal in person
(4) Claims arising out of COVID 19 circumstances
(5) Claims involving personal litigants
(6) Claims where neither side has insurance funding

I am an accredited mediator with Mediation Forum Ireland and a member of The Bar of Northern Ireland’s Resolution Centre. I have also recently completed training in online mediation with Andrew Dane of Global Mediation Solutions.

I am now offering virtual mediations. To find out more, please book a call with me via www.emmamcilveen.com.

Alongside employment, I also practice immigration law. Ever since my trip to Jordan to assess the Syrian refugee crisis in 2014, I have been passionate about advocating on behalf of refugees.This month, I will therefore be donating a billable hour to this great cause. For more information in relation to this initiative, see www.billablehour.org.

Netflix: Lady Bird
Book: It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness by Suzanne O'Sullivan
Food: https://www.communityeats.com
Podcast: Best of Belfast
Lockdown activity: Check out Aly Harte on Instagram for virtual art classes.

m. 07752 370149
e. emma.mcilveen@barlibrary.com
Bar of NI Profile
The Bar Library, 91 Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 3JQ, Northern Ireland

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Copyright © 2020, Emma McIlveen, Barrister at Law, All rights reserved.

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This bulletin is published by Emma McIlveen, Barrister at Law. Please note that the information and any commentary on the law contained in this bulletin is provided free of charge for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort is made to make the information and commentary accurate and up to date, but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by the author or the publisher.

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