The Annual Conference: Employment Law and Practice

JSB’s Annual Employment Law conference took place on 12 June at the Hilton London Euston hotel. This premier event provided key updates on the case law and legislation which have arisen over the past year and offered practical advice from leading lawyers at top law firms including Herbert Smith, Olswang, DLA Piper, Eversheds, CMS Cameron McKenna and Dechert.

The day commenced with a presentation by Anna Henderson and Peter Frost from Herbert Smith on the difficult area of discipline and grievances. This interesting session provided an update on the statutory procedures, the Employment Bill reforms and the draft Acas code and explained how this will potentially affect the workplace. Key advice was also offered on managing workplace investigations and hearings and the business case was examined for using alternative dispute resolution and, in particular, mediation as a tool for resolving workplace conflict.

The next presentation focused on the key changes and case law developments in discrimination law, and was led by Melanie Lane of Olswang. This informative presentation covered the current legal framework surrounding age, sex and disability discrimination and touched on key cases which have recently occurred in this area such as Heyday and Coleman v Attridge as well as providing an update on the new Single Equality Bill.

The next two sessions of the day focused around the issue of employee wellbeing and provided both legal and practical advice on managing absence and ill-health within the workplace. The first session was led by Jonathan Hearn of DLA Piper and provided key legal advice on absence policies, dismissal and sick pay. A clear update was also provided on the important case of Stringer and the accrual of holiday pay during sick leave.

This interesting legal session was followed by a practical case study presented by Leatham Green of East Sussex County Council. Leatham spoke about how the Council has implemented a well being culture and improved sickness absence in the workplace. He outlined the policy changes the Council had made and explained how the employees have been engaged in the whole process which has really helped to make a difference.

The final presentation before lunch was based around the contract of employment and was led by Catherine Wilson-Paul of Eversheds. Catherine provided an update on the case law and legislation surrounding agency workers and also offered legal advice on holiday pay as well as incorporating restrictive covenants into the contract of employment – some much needed legal advice for employers.

After lunch, the presentations continued with a case study from Christine Moore of BT. As well as providing a legal update on flexible working policies, Christine explained how BT had gone about responding to these legislative changes and offered practical examples of how this had worked within the organisation. This provided delegates with some useful tips for creating a work-life balance within their organisations.

The day came to a close with two final presentations from Simon Jeffreys of CMS Cameron McKenna and Charles Wynn-Evans of Dechert. Simon spoke about the changes in case law surrounding TUPE and Redundancy and how this would be likely to change in the future. Charles then gave a thorough update on the areas of corporate manslaughter, immigration and rolled up holiday pay, which brought the conference to a end for the day. The presentations were all extremely well received and gave a clear and concise overview of the current developments in employment law - we look forward to seeing you all again next year!