For those of you who plan to spend the holiday week catching up on some summer beach reading, but don’t know what to read, we recommend that you include the following:
1. How To Defend Against Discrimination, Wrongful Termination and Other Claims. This short article in SmartBusiness describes Employment Practices Liability (“EPL”) insurance and how it can protect small business owners from bankrupting discrimination claims.
2. Questions Of Age Discrimination In Decisions Of The European Court Of Justice. This not-so-short article in Social Europe Journal, more scholarly than light, is a great summary of the decisions from the European Court of Justice relating to age discrimination issues in the EU, particularly as they relate to Germany. Recommended more for European attorneys and HR people who, unfortunately, do not have a holiday week to spend on light reading.
3. Partner’s Retirement Age of 65 Was Justified. This article in The Lawyer describes the significant case out of the UK of Seldon v. Clarkson, Wright & Jakes, where an Employment Tribunal “concluded that a mandatory retirement age of 65 for the partners at the [law] firm was a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aims of retaining associates and facilitating workforce planning. The Employment Tribunal held that a retirement age of 65 fell within the narrow range of possible retirement ages that could have achieved these aims.”
4. Aging Work Force Requires Changes Like Partial Pensions, Flexible Positions. This self-explanatory article was published in The Globe and Mail in Canada.
5. Tackling Workplace Bullying and Other Fair Work Changes. From Australia, this short piece by Anna Ford of Coleman Greig Lawyers talks about proposed changes to The Fair Work Act contained in the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013.
6. Employment Law Update (Ireland). Written by attorneys at Mason Hayes & Curran, this article describes various amendments and changes to Irish laws, and in particular “The Employment Equality (Amendment) Bill 2013, published on 25 February 2013 [which] proposes to amend the existing definition of discrimination in the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2011, to include discrimination on the grounds of gender identity.”
7. Obese Employee Disabled Under Discrimination Law. An attorney from Rawlinson Butler (UK) says that “The Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed in a recent case that whilst obesity itself is not considered to be an“impairment” for disability discrimination purposes, if the individual suffers from a number of physical and mental conditions then it is possible that they could be classed as being disabled. Therefore, the duty on an employer to make reasonable adjustments to the employee’s role could arise.” See also our own blog post on the American Medical Association declaring obesity a disease which may prompt a spate of disability suits, posted on June 24, 2013.
