UNFAIR DISMISSAL AWARDS

The minimum basic award for certain unfair dismissals, including dismissals for reasons of trade union membership or activities; health and safety duties, pension scheme trustee duties; acting as an employee representative increased from £4,700 to £5,000 on 1 February 2011.

Dismissal for carrying out health and safety duties is unfair if the dismissal is for:

• carrying out or trying to carry out any activities in a role as health and safety representative to reduce risks to health and safety;
• performing or trying to perform duties as an official or employer acknowledged health and safety rep or committee member;
• bringing to the employer's attention a concern about health or safety in the workplace;
• leaving, proposing to leave or refusing to return to the workplace (or any dangerous part of it) if there is a serious, imminent danger that the worker cannot prevent; or
• taking or trying to take the appropriate steps to protect oneself or other people from a serious and imminent danger.
  

A full list of the new amounts can be seen at:
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/ImageLibrary/detail.aspx?MediaDetailsID=2804 and a brief summary of dismissal law at
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/Dismissal/DG_10026692

RETIREMENT AGE CHANGE

After 1 October 2011 employers will not be able to use the default retirement age (DRA) of 65 to compulsorily retire employees.

Although the Government is removing the DRA, it will still be possible for individual employers to operate a compulsory retirement age, provided that they can objectively justify it. Examples of such retirements could include air traffic controllers and police officers.

While there is plenty of evidence that older workers can be more effective than their younger counterparts the change is likely to flag up some challenges for health and safety practitioners. One well known DIY chain has an active policy of recruiting older workers, for instance. Arguably, however, there are equal challenges for younger, less experienced, workers.

NEW UK TRAINING SCHEME

As of 1 January 2011, the National Qualifications Scheme has been replaced by the Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF). The QCF is now the national framework for all new UK competency and other qualifications.

There are nine levels in the QCF, from entry level up to level 8. Some qualifications will continue to be called National Vocational Qualifications.

Every qualification in the QCF is made up of units. Every unit has a credit value that shows how long the unit takes to complete. A credit represents about 10 hours' work. Every qualification in the QCF comes in one of three sizes (durations) - Award, Certificate and Diploma. The total credit value of a qualification determines whether it is an Award, a Certificate or a Diploma. Awards are made up of 1 to 12 credits, Certificates 13 to 36 credits and Diplomas 37 credits or more.

Significantly, in-house training may be formally recognised as units and qualifications in the QCF.

For more information go to: www.qcda.gov.uk/qualifications/60.aspx

SENTENCING GUIDELINES IMPACT

Kennedys Solicitors has assessed the impact of the Sentencing Guidelines Council which suggest that, for a company convicted of corporate manslaughter, a fine should seldom be less than £500,000, and that a fine for a health and safety offence, where the offence is shown to have caused death, should seldom be less than £100,000.

The general trend in 2010 is for significantly increased fines for those that can afford to pay them - ranging from £100,000 in a Court of Appeal case to the high fines following Buncefield. There are also examples of small companies where fines of less than £30,000 have been imposed for breaches causing death.

More information: http://www.kennedys-law.com/media/emails/health_safety/January2011/HealthandSafetyFines.html

END OF EXPERT WITNESS PROTECTION?

As we went to press judgment was awaited in a Supreme Court case which could lead to the end of immunity from being sued in negligence currently available to expert witnesses.

The case Jones (Appellant) v Kaney (Respondent) (UKSC 2010/0034) involved allegations that an expert provided negligent opinion evidence when she acted as a claimant's expert in a personal injury claim arising out of a road traffic accident.

At present UK case law means that expert witnesses have immunity from being sued for evidence given to court. Part of the argument for the Supreme Court to allow the expert to be sued is that lawyers have not had immunity from being sued since a ruling in 2000.

A note on the case can be found at www.keatingchambers.co.uk/resources/publications/recent/jls_expert_witness.aspx and the case details at: www.supremecourt.gov.uk/current-cases/CCCaseDetails/case_2010_0034.html

INJURY CASH INCENTIVES

The Government is consulting on a proposal which will stop firms offering cash incentives to attract people to make compensation claims through them.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says companies which promise a financial reward for claims want to attract people who may be led to believe they can receive a large payout for minor incidents such as slips, trips and falls. The MoJ estimates that around five per cent of all regulated businesses currently offer these types of inducements and within that five per cent, the majority of those firms appear to be smaller and not generally operating on a national scale.

The proposed rule change would stop the offering of cash payments or similar benefits to attract claimants and forms part of the MoJ's response to Lord Young's recommendations last year.

The consultation can be found at www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/consultation-cp1910.htm

MACHINE OPERATOR STANDARD

A new ISO standard looks at risk assessment and risk reduction for machinery. ISO 12100:2010, Safety of machinery - General principles for design - Risk assessment and risk reduction, includes risk assessment guidelines for designers presented as a series of logical steps.

ISO 12100:2010 replaces ISO 12100-1:2003, ISO 12100-2:2003 and ISO 14121-1:2007. It is intended to be used as a basis for the preparation of type-B (generic safety standards) dealing with one safety aspect or one type of safeguard that can be used across a wide range of machinery or type-C safety standards (machine safety standards) dealing with detailed safety equirements for a particular machine or group of machines.

Copies are available from the BSI for £196 (or £98 for BSI members). http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030240710

UK X-RAY EXPOSURE

Greater use of X-rays over the last ten years, including a 140 per cent increase in CT examinations, has raised the annual radiation dose the UK public receives, Health Protection Agency (HPA) research has found.

Radiation scientists at the HPA have estimated that about 46 million medical and dental X-ray examinations were carried out across the UK in 2008, an increase of 10 per cent since 1997. About two-thirds, 67 per cent, of the procedures were carried out in NHS hospitals while 26 per cent were performed by dentists.

The new HPA study reveals that the average annual radiation dose to each member of the public from all diagnostic X-rays has increased from 0.33 millisieverts (mSv) in 1997, the last time a detailed frequency survey was completed, to 0.4 mSv. Most of the increase is due to the growth in the number of higher dose CT examinations.

More information:
www.hpa.org.uk/NewsCentre/NationalPressReleases/2011PressReleases/110104scaleofxray exposurerevealed/

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