BRIEFING - HOLIDAY PAY AND OVERTIME

The case is subject to a possible appeal, but Roythornes Solicitors employment law team have been studying the Tribunal's findings and produced a detailed briefing note which covers a number of issues which have arisen from the judgment.

Is overtime to be included?

• Increased rate of pay for 4 weeks or 5.6 weeks holiday?
• Limitation - how far back can underpayment claims go? 

Our view
The briefing is free of charge and can be found here.

We have already discussed the issues raised with a number of clients and contacts, but if you have any questions about how it affects your business, please contact one of the employment law team.

Roythornes Employment Law contacts

• Phil Cookson | 01775 842575 | philcookson@roythornes.co.uk
• Peter Bennett | 01775 842550 | peterbennett@roythornes.co.uk
• Maz Dannourah | 01775 842597 | mazdannourah@roythornes.co.uk
• John Cameron | 01775 842517 | johncameron@roythornes.co.uk

You will be aware of the widely reported decision by the Employment Appeal Tribunal which ruled that overtime should be included in holiday pay.

REQUESTING FLEXIBLE WORKING HOURS

From 30th June 2014 all Employees will be able to ask their Employer for a change in their working hours, as long as that they have 26 weeks or more continuous employment.

Currently only staff who are Carers for immediate members of their family are able to make such requests. From July, Employees who want to reduce or change their hours to accommodate other aspects of their lives will be able to make the same request.

It is envisaged that the most common requests are likely to come from:

1. Older workers who may wish to reduce their work.
2. Workers with disabilities who want to keep working but accommodate health problems.

Employers are not obliged to accept the request, but must give it serious consideration, fully investigated it and inform the Employee of the outcome within three months of the request being made.

This would include inviting the Employee to a meeting to discuss their request, writing to them to inform them of the outcome, and giving them an opportunity to appeal if they wish to do so.

If the Employer wishes to turn the request down, they can do so, but the decision must be based on one or more of the following:

1. Unacceptable costs to the business.
2. Inability to share the Employees work among other staff.
3. Inability to recruit other staff to fill the hours the Employee doesn’t want to work.
4. Detrimental effects upon the quality of the Employers work.
5. Detrimental effects upon customer service.
6. Detrimental effects upon performance.
7. Insufficient work for the employee to do during the hours they want to work.

The Employer should also consider potential discrimination if they want to turn down the Employee’s request, such as Employees who want to reduce hours due to health problems, or change hours to accommodate religious commitments.

Profile
Christopher Moses is Managing Director of Personnel Advice & Solutions Ltd and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.  If you have any questions regarding these issues please feel free to contact him on (01529) 305056 or email p.d.solutions@zen.co.uk

While every care has been taken in compiling these notes, Personnel Advice and Solutions Ltd cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. These notes are intended to provide general information. Guidance for specific legal problems should be sought separately.

NANOTECHNOLOGY IN FOOD

An update from Roythornes Solicitors

Another GM?

Nanotechnology is already being used in food yet if governments do not start to legislate over its use, there is a danger that the science will we seen in the same light as GM crops.  Peter Bennett, head of Roythornes Solicitor’s food team discusses the implications.

Several companies operating in the food and drink sector are developing a range of nanomaterials with the caveat of altering taste, improving safety, increasing the health benefits that a given product delivers or refining packaging to lengthen the life-span of packaged foods.

However, the current lack of regulation leaves the industry open to a furore similar to the one seen with genetically modified (GM) foods. Consumable GM products were made available well in advance of any regulatory mechanism coming into force; in fact, the EU's GM Food and Feed Regulation didn't come into force until 2004, eight years after the first GM product, FlavrSavr, was sold in the UK.

 

Controversial research and a widespread negative media perception condemned GM foods to the side-lines in the late 1990s. Contrary to huge amounts of subsequent scientific study, the public is still wary of ill, and potentially unfairly, labelled 'frankenfoods'.

Companies using or hoping to use nanotechnology need to walk before they run; they need to publicly research the technology and support regulation in order for people to trust their products.

So what is nanotechnology?

The Royal Society has defined nanomaterials as having one dimension less than 100 nanometres (nm) or 0.1 micrometres; nanotechnology then is the fabrication of these materials. The scale of a nanomaterial makes it easier for it to pass through biological barriers without triggering the immune system - this is why there are concerns about safety when nanomaterials are added to food.

A report published by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee (Nanotechnologies and Food) explored potential health and safety concerns relating to the technology. The report suggested that nanomaterials are small enough when consumed to avoid digestion and pass into the blood, giving them potential access to all areas of the body. It also put forward that inorganic materials, if used, may be insoluble and could accumulate causing damage to organs.

In a very lateral sense, nanomaterials are already part of the food growing and manufacturing process as the characteristics of many products are determined by nanometre-sized components. However, recent developments in the technology are leading the way for manufactured nanomaterials to be added to food and drink products and their packaging.

Is its use being regulated?

Clay nanocomposites are already being used to provide gas barriers in bottles, cartons and packaging films to prolong shelf-life and there is some regulation in place to monitor such uses.

In theory, whenever nanotechnology is used to develop a novel food or process approval is required in accordance with the EU's Novel Food Regulation to ensure products are safe for human consumption and correctly labelled.

In the UK, a regulatory review in August 2008 by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) concluded that toxicology levels should be continually monitored in food and drink products that use nanotechnology. The FSA is also obliged to assess the food safety implications of nanotechnology use if a company wants to market a product that contains nanomaterials.

This approach from the FSA seems a little underwhelming when we consider the response to GM foods, where the regulation and research was similarly lacking before the products were made available for consumption. This isn't to say that nanometerials are unsafe, merely that certainty is required before the technology is allowed to be rolled out for widespread use in the food and drink industry.

www.roythorne.co.uk 

TOP FIVE FOOD LAW THEMES FOR 2014

We asked Roythornes Solicitors to tell us about the food law landscape for 2014. 

This is what the team said:

2013 was, without question, a year dominated by supply chain and provenance issues, and the horsemeat debacle won't be going away any time soon. The legislative response to this is yet to play out in full and it is likely to re-appear in some of the food headlines in 2014.

These are the top five themes that we [Roythornes] believe will lead discussions around food law in 2014.

Grocery code adjudicator
Following the granting of Royal Assent to the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) Bill in April 2013 and an independent review into Britain's food system, 2014 will see an examination of how the GCA can deliver fairer food supply chains and stronger growth in the industry.

We may see the Groceries Supply Code of Practice being enforced more stringently and the future of the food supply chain come under scrutiny. It will be interesting to see how Government, regulators and the food industry can work together to strengthen consumer confidence in the provenance of food products.

Food waste
With growing concern over the UK's food waste, we threw away 4.2m tonnes of food and drink last year worth £12.5bn. According to WRAP, there will be significant legislative attempts to reduce worrying national food waste rates.

We're already seeing bans on food waste to landfill proposed, but there are likely to be more robust proposals and an approach that supports innovative techniques which lengthen shelf-life.

EU ingredient control
Ingredient control is an increasing global concern.  The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is eliminating the use of trans-fats in the US food supply chain, and this trend is likely to cross the Atlantic as health becomes more and more important.

The EU commission recently asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to assess the health implications of phosphate additives. The EFSA has said it will collect data from the industry phosphate levels in food, in an effort to understand whether they pose any risk.

Supply chains, provenance and labelling
Influenced by the horsemeat scandal, the EU Commission recently proposed to make it mandatory for ready meal manufacturers to mention the origin of meat used in the product on their packaging.

The Commission initially blocked an adoption of the report until a later date, however, proponents of the measure have stepped up their lobbying. French authorities are particularly committed, and will raise the issue at a meeting of the Agriculture Council scheduled in December.

It is clear that meat provenance will continue to dominate many agendas, and ready meal labelling is one area where the EU will focus its attention in 2014

Zero-hours contract/living wage
The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) bared its teeth this year, suspending licences and investigating fraudulent gangmasters resulting in a string of arrests. However, human trafficking and exploitation is still endemic in the food processing and agricultural sectors.

To help curb systematic abuses, the food manufacturing industry will face demands to scrap zero- hours contracts and honour the living wage in 2014.

ROYTHORNES- FOOD SECTOR E-BRIEFING

Through your Select Lincolnshire membership we’ll share the e-briefing with you, but don’t forget that you can sign-up for it with Roythornes Solicitors and have it drop into your inbox every time.

Roythornes has an experienced team and operate in many sectors including fresh-chilled, frozen, drinks and prepared meals. 

If you’d like to sign up to the e-briefing then email markdodds@roythornes.co.uk