Category Archives: Employment

Employment

Changing Employment Scenario In India

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India was hit by the IT boom a couple of years back and a lot of young college graduates started taking up jobs with these companies because it was easy to get jobs in these companies compared to the government sector. However, it did not take long for these people to realize that the private firms are not much concerned about the welfare of their employees; the only thing that they are concerned about is profit.

It was during this time that the government bank jobs in India regained their popularity and a lot of people started leaving these private companies to apply for government jobs. During this time the government also realized that it needed to make a couple of changes in the whole employment system so more people could get employed with government departments.

The Ministry of human resource and development conducted a couple of camps throughout the country in different colleges and universities to find out ways to increase employment opportunities. It did not take him long to realize that almost all government vacancies in India were available in the metropolitan cities; there were very few vacancies in the rural areas. The Ministry submitted a report to the central government and the latter chalked out a plan to put things in order.

The Indian government took a most important step to increase employment opportunities throughout the country and it was the dissolution of a number of trade unions across diverse industry verticals.

Prior to the Indian government taking any positive action, different trade unions across the country had a lot of power in their hands. Some sectors such as public transport, licensing departments, and the road construction departments had a lot of employees who were not under the direct payrolls of the government. These contract employees used to work on daily wages under government appointed contractors and had absolutely no job security. And most of the cases it was the trade unions who decided whom to employ and whom to reject.

The government was basically concerned about getting the job done; not the process through which the job was getting done. This fishy system also promoted a lot of corruption in the government departments.
After getting reports from the HRD Ministry, the central government put a complete ban on a lot of trade unions across the country and all those people who used to work as contract employees soon got absorbed into the system.

Employment

Employment Law – Excessive Working Hours – Breach Of Duty Of Care

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n the case of Mark Hone v Six Continents Retail Limited (2005), a pub landlord having collapsed due to overwork successfully sued his former employers in the County Court for breach of duty of care.

Mr Hone, the claimant, started working for Bass (now Six Continents) as a pub manager in 1995 and in 1998 was awarded “Pub Manager of the Year”. However, in 1999 he started working at The Old Moat House where he found himself working 13 hour days.

He repeatedly complained to his employers that he was overworked but the employers took no action. He had no assistant manager and other staff members, who left, including two chefs and an administrative worker, were never replaced.

Mr Hone, who had refused to sign a clause opting out of EU legislation that limits the number of hours an employee works, began suffering from headaches and insomnia. In May 2000, he collapsed at work suffering from an anxiety disorder. In 2004, Mr Hone sued Bass for breaching the duty of care owed to him as an employee.

The first instance court ( Swansea County Court ) held that:

Bass had not taken reasonable steps to ensure that Mr Hone did not work over 48 hours, which was likely to cause injury to his health, and that resources were available to employ more support staff for him; and
Bass should pay Mr Hone 21,000 in damages.
Six Continents (formerly Bass) appealed this decision to the Court of Appeal who upheld the Swansea County Court’s judgment.

Comment: This case highlights the importance of not imposing excessive working hours on employees and ensuring that employees have sufficient staff support.

If you require further information contact us at

RT COOPERS, 2005. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.

Employment

Things to know for Legal Assistant Employment Application Questions

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Corporations and law groups which offer legal services to their buyers hire paralegal associates and trainees who assist them in their legal activity. Every business requirements a good and knowledgeable worker for itself and it’s the same in situation of legal groups, they need intelligent paralegals that have thorough knowledge about legal proceedings. Prior to the official hiring and recruitment in the paralegals, the businesses or groups eat a testing test and an job interview to scan the candidates. This method helps to identify the correct person inside group who has to become selected. A general legal questionnaire is prepared by staff which includes queries inside the respective field. Sometimes paralegal job interview queries are incredibly tricky and fact oriented where an individual has to give appropriate references for his answers. Paralegal job interview is not as easy as the popular task interviews are because it requires the base of info and their appropriate legal things in their support.

Generally, most of the legal corporations research an excellent legal assistant so they don’t ask about legal procedures and related laws like “what is your knowledge about formal legal proceedings? This a weird kind of question if asked from a legal assistant inside a paralegal interview. The principal focus is towards the candidate’s easy skill and research abilities, regardless of whether a candidate can probe out detailed analysis about a legal scenario. Some legal businesses ask for strengths and weaknesses of an individual who is trying to find a task for your paralegal assistant. These sorts of questions are irrelevant to the career but they supply an initiating point in your formal session or sometime it may possibly begin with asking a person’s name. Generally, candidates who have completed their paralegal training make it through since they’ve rich knowledge about several legal aspects. And after the paralegal job interview questions arrive to civil matters, they typically ask questions related to intellectual property rights and real estate laws.

Paralegal job interview queries like “why ought to we take you as a paralegal? These kinds of questions are really confusing and put a candidate inside a quandary case mainly because a single wrong word can make the situation worse. In this respect an appropriate resolution based answer is needed which can justify the question. Sometimes the paralegal job interview questions may be from employer employee relation; just the straightforward rules practically nothing in depth is required. If someone has already got some experience as a paralegal then question may be asked about his jobs like his branch of working, documentation program is really important. If any question is related to past jobs experience then the answer needs to be stated inside a professional way due to the fact this will help an individual in elevating his profile. There are lots of open shut queries which are asked like “Describe a single of the worst experiences”. Another person has to react professionally and need to respond with a precise answer rather than indulging in details. In a paralegal interview, they may possibly ask about a person’s confidence level or his motivation techniques. Mainly the questions asked are from professional background of an individual including his past experiences.

Boone Gomez administers legal assistant.biz. For more information on paralegal interview questions and answers, visit http://www.legal-assistant.biz

Employment

Abbey Santander Group Demonstrates Appeal Stages And Court Structure In Employment Disputes

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The appeal stages and court structure in employment disputes in the UK is demonstrated by the high-profile Chagger v Abbey National plc & Hopkins (2006) legal case, where the Employment Tribunal found race discrimination and made the record breaking 2.8 million compensation award. Abbey National Santander Abbey (the UK high street bank soon to be re-branded as Santander share, and being part of the Banco Santander Group) ended Balbinder Chagger’s employment in 2006, giving redundancy as the reason. However, Mr Chagger believed the real reason behind his dismissal was race discrimination. Mr Chagger (of Indian origin) was employed as a Trading Risk Controller. He earned around 100,000 a year and reported into Nigel Hopkins, his manager.

If an employee has suffered unfairness and/or discrimination in employment then he could decide to appeal. The first point of appeal may be to the employer, in the form of a formal grievance. The employee lodges the formal grievance with the employer. The employer is responsible for hearing the grievance and deciding its outcome. The employer is, thus, given the opportunity to deal with the employment dispute and to close it satisfactorily. However, Mr Chagger’s issues were simply dismissed out of hand by the Banco Santander Group company.

If the parties cannot resolve their employment dispute between themselves, then either party may appeal to an Employment Tribunal for an independent resolution of the dispute. Employment Tribunals will hear disputes concerning unfair dismissal, redundancy payments and discrimination. Mr Chagger eventually appealed to the Employment Tribunal by starting legal proceedings against both Santander Abbey National and Mr Hopkins on the grounds of race discrimination and unfair dismissal. The Employment Tribunal heard the case and concluded that Mr Chagger had been both dismissed unfairly and discriminated against on the grounds of race in respect of his dismissal, by both Mr Hopkins and Santander Abbey National. The Employment Tribunal took the rare step of ordering Abbey Santander to reinstate Mr Chagger in order to remedy the wrong of race discrimination it had committed. Santander Abbey National, however, refused to comply with the Employment Tribunal’s reinstatement order. Following Santander Abbey National’s failure to comply, the Employment Tribunal subsequently ordered Abbey Santander to pay Mr Chagger the record breaking 2.8 million compensation for his loss on the basis that he had not been reinstated.

The employee/employer that is dissatisfied with the Employment Tribunal’s decisions may appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). The EAT will consider appeals against decisions made by Employment Tribunals. The grounds of appeal must be points of law (i.e., the appeal must be about errors in the legal reasoning of the Employment Tribunal’s decision). The EAT will not reconsider issues of fact. Santander Abbey National and Mr Hopkins appealed to the EAT against the Employment Tribunal’s decision of race discrimination and against the award of 2.8 million compensation. The EAT heard Abbey Santander’s appeals. It decided to uphold the original Employment Tribunal’s finding that Mr Hopkins and Santander Abbey National had discriminated against Mr Chagger on the grounds of race in respect of his dismissal. However, it accepted Abbey Santander’s appeal on the record breaking 2.8 million compensation award and remitted the compensation matter to the original Employment Tribunal for reconsideration on the basis of the likelihood of Mr Chagger leaving Santander Abbey National’s employment in any case.

The party that is dissatisfied with the EAT’s decisions may appeal to the Court of Appeal, being the second highest court in the land. The Court of Appeal will consider appeals against decisions made by the EAT. Once again, the grounds of the appeal must be points of law (i.e., the appeal must be about errors in the legal reasoning of the EAT’s decision). The Court of Appeal will not reconsider issues of fact either. The Santander Abbey National case was appealed to the Court of Appeal; the Court of Appeal’s website showed the case was heard this month, on 7 and 8 July 2009. The Court of Appeal’s records concerning the hearing were not available at the time of writing this article. According to 11KBW set of chambers, the hearing was limited to the issue of compensation only (i.e., not to the matter of race discrimination also). That would suggest that the wrong of race discrimination committed by Santander Abbey National and Mr Hopkins seems to have been finalised by the EAT, which upheld the original Employment Tribunal’s finding that Mr Hopkins and Abbey Santander had discriminated against Mr Chagger on the grounds of race in his dismissal.

The party that is dissatisfied with the Court of Appeal’s decisions may appeal to the House of Lords, being the highest court in the land. Any appeal to the House of Lords requires the Court of Appeal’s approval and the Court of Appeal must also certify a question of general public importance that the House of Lords needs to decide upon. Again, appeals to the House of Lords must be about points of law and not about issues of fact. The House of Lords is the final stage of appeal for most legal cases in the UK. However, rare cases may be permitted for appeal to the European Court of Justice, which has jurisdiction on matters of European Community law.

Employment

Oil Rig Employment How To Get Hired Faster

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The world still runs on oil, with no viable substitute in sight, and prospects for oil rig employment remain strong. While there is a recession going on and a few oil companies are keeping their oil rigs idle (and retrenching workers), other oil companies are actually hiring more workers to man their oil rigs. As long as you look for offshore oil rig jobs in the right place, you can still get a job.

Have you ever worked in oil rig jobs? If not, this is a good time for you to get some subsidized training. The Department of Labor has a JobCorp program works with technical colleges training for disadvantaged youths. Some of their training programs are relevant to the oil and gas industry.

Even if you don’t meet the requirements for subsidized training, you may want to pay your own way. Remember that oil rig employment pays two times more than any other industry for doing the same job. If the training increases your chances of getting oil rig jobs, isn’t it worthwhile?

Apart from oil rig specific training, you should also aim for a few other certifications – offshore survival, helicopter underwater escape training and first aid. In addition, get your passport, vaccinations and medical certificates ready and up-to-date. Some states or countries may have additional paperwork you need to comply with. Remember to do some reading on maritime law – in some countries offshore oil rigs legally count as ships.

Make sure you have a bag packed and ready to go. Get your personal affairs settled ahead of time – your insurance, mortgage, property taxes, utilities bills and phone bills, etc. If you get a job offer, you want to start ASAP. It is foolish to delay – this only gives time for things to go wrong.

Don’t worry about the recession, there is still plenty of oil rig employment available. You just need to look in the right places. Just get all your training and paperwork ready ahead of time so that the human resource department has no excuse to shred your resume.

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