Top 10 Labour and Employment Headlines from Europe A joke has been doing the rounds recently of a facebook entry where an individual has updated her status on facebook to refer to the fact that she hates her job and that her boss is always making her do “sh*t” work and that he is a “pervy wan**r.” Employers are often confused about contracts of employment – what needs to be issued & when; what these should contain; and whether a contract even exists. The slightest mention of employment tribunals worries most small businesses, but with a little research & understanding there is often nothing to fear. Disciplinary procedures: easy when you know what you’re doing, but a costly & bureaucratic nightmare when you don’t tick all the right boxes during the process. We remind sponsors that it is important to keep a record on eachsponsored migrant's file as to which version of the sponsorguidance was in use at the time the certificate of sponsorship(CoS) was assigned and we also recommend that sponsors keep copiesof the current and all previous versions of the sponsorguidance. The concern for employers is that we may now be in an era of "textual harassment" where harassment and bullying takes place through the sending of inappropriate and offensive text messages, emails or internet postings, which the employer is not aware of and has little control over. What should you do to ensure you stay on the right side of the law when looking at creative alternatives to redundancy? The High Court has ruled that the UK's Default Retirement Age ("DRA") of 65 is not incompatible with the European Equal Treatment Framework Directive. However, it went on to say that there were "compelling" reasons for advancing the DRA beyond 65 in the future. Recently, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) announced that the number of employees killed or injured at work is at it lowest level since the introduction of the modern health & safety system 35 years ago. The key theme through this newsletter is one of planning ahead. We cover a range of different issues of critical importance to the future of registered providers of social housing (RPs), all of which will require investment of time by management to ensure that potential adverse consequences are minimised. | 
