Employment Law
Background information The following case scenarios concern a medium sized organisation, Mercia Building Ltd., which employs 240 workers. The company manufactures and sells kitchen units and operates from a main site in Camford and a number of small showrooms throughout the country. The Sales department is split into two divisions one is Retail sales where individual customers can purchase kitchen units direct from the company via the showrooms and the website; the other division is Commercial sales where builders and other organisations purchase the units mostly in bulk. You were appointed as HR Manager three months ago when you replaced the previous office manager who recently retired. When you arrived in your new job you discovered that there were few up to date policies and procedures for the management of human resources, and many decisions have been made by line managers with no clear guidance from the previous office manager. There is a formal disciplinary procedure and a formal grievance procedure in place, both of which appear to have been copied from an out-dated Government website without modification. There appears to have been no formal training on handling difficult human resource issues for line management. You need to give your advice on what needs to be done in the following scenarios. Scenario Two When you arrived at work this morning you found a letter from a member of the sales staff, Rita Croucher. Rita worked for several years as a supervisor of sales staff at a competing Builders Merchants, but she gave up work when she had children. Rita returned to work after caring for her two children for a number of years as ten months ago, when her children started school, she was successful in obtaining a job at Mercia Building Supplies as a sales assistant. She found out a couple of months ago that Mercia intended to recruit a supervisory salesperson for a position very similar to that which Rita had previously held. She applied for the job but was rejected without an interview the rejection letter said that competition for the position had been intense and more suitable candidates were being offered interviews. A week after her rejection letter arrived she was having coffee in the canteen with a colleague when she recognised Ryan Kirst, the Personnel Officer who had interviewed her, at the next table and she told him how disappointed she was not to get an interview. He told her that she wasnt really suitable for the job because she was 43 years old and the company wanted to present a younger image in order to attract architects and interior designers who might be more willing to buy from someone who understood designer trends. The job advertisement had specified that the candidate be under 40 years of age and Rita knew that she didnt satisfy that requirement, but she really wanted a similar job to that which she had previously held. In her letter Rita said that she didnt think that shed been fairly treated as she was an experienced candidate. She wants to lodge a grievance. Answer this : You must use appropriate cases law in order to support your answers. AT LEAST 5 CASES AS EXAMPLE Structure: Please NO INTODUCTION The advice should be in report format, with clear headings, paragraphs, sub-sections and numbering where appropriate. The reports should as a minimum have at least the following sections: Introduction: A very brief outline of the key issues, background/situation in scenario etc. You do not need to repeat the facts of the scenario Findings: An analysis/explanation of the legal position should be included, using legislation and case law to define the issues involved on both sides. Conclusions: What the legal position is believed to be. Recommendations: What the company needs to do, in both the short and long term. PLEASE USE BETWEEN 5-10 CASES AS EXAMPLE Further details: Please make sure all cases are given a citation, preferably in the text or, as a minimum, in the list of references /bibliography. For example, ‘Ali v Baba (2015) 1 WLR 239’. The list of references should include a list of the legal cases and legislation mentioned in the answer. The legal cases and legislation are the primary sources of information in a law essay you do not have to cite the secondary source where they viewed a case. You should only give the legal citation, not the website or book where they accessed details of the case. For example, this is the correct reference for this case – London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Mr J Wooster [2009] All ER (D) 160 – not London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Mr J Wooster, Turner, C (2013) Unlocking Employment Law, 383. Please make sure all direct and indirect quotations from textbooks, journals or electronic resources are properly referenced (using an ‘in text citation’ or footnote reference in the main body of your answer) and any resources used must be listed in the bibliography. Do not use abbreviations such as ‘eq’, ‘ie’ or simplify words such as ‘because’ to ‘cos’ or ‘for’ to ‘4’. It is important to observe and use good academic English in answering assignment questions, be it an essay or a problem question. Please use proper paragraphs and paraphrasing. A paragraph should not consist of one sentence. As a recommendation, use either ‘Times New Roman’ or ‘Arial’ with a minimum font size of 10, and maximum of 12, with 1.5 spacing. The answer must not be purely descriptive and efforts must be taken to relate the answer to the question throughout the discussion. However, if you make an assertion you must support it with an academic reference or legal authority. Do not use bullet points (it is a law essay). Assignments will be marked on Grademark according to the following criteria: For case study scenario 1. Use and application of the relevant law to underpin the analysis, including Statute, case law and legal definitions. Have the specific issues been identified and defined and have suitable legal cases and legislation been incorporated as part of the discussions? 2. Analysis and matching of facts of scenario to the law and any relevant good practice guidelines, for example, the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance. Has an explanation of the issues identified been provided and are the arguments / discussions coherent and applied to the problem question? 3. Have appropriate recommendations on action to be taken been included and measures for future prevention of problem been outlined? 4. Academic Rigour: Detail of presentation, including accurate referencing of cases, Statutes and other sources, use of Harvard referencing, spelling and grammar. 5. Appropriate structure of report – demonstrating thorough consideration and arrangement of material whilst revealing a systematic approach to producing a coherent answer. This should include the provision of an introduction, an analysis broken down into relevant sections and, if necessary, sub-sections, a conclusion and a list of references and bibliography.
