On Wednesday 29th January we held the seminar “Employment Law Update,” in collaboration with Levenes Employment, a member of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce.
Igor Urra, Secretary General of the Spanish Chamber, welcomed attendees on behalf of our institution and introduced Pavlos Paschali and Armen Adjemian, both solicitors at Levenes Employment, the speakers for this session.
Both of them have an extensive CV within the law sector. Armen Adjemian advises on all aspects of employment law, but he is particularly interested in discrimination cases. Pavlos Paschali also advises on a full range of employment law matters and disputes, from Employment Tribunal claims to High Court litigation.
Mr. Pavlos Paschali (left) and Mr. Armen Adjemian, from Levenes Employment, during the seminar
The seminar kicked off with Mr. Adjemian briefly presenting Levenes Employment to attendees and what areas they cover. He then went on to inform that by the end of January there will be several changes in the Protection of Employment regulations that will affect both employers and employees in the UK, which was the topic the session focused on.
Mr. Adjemian then went on to focus on other subjects that are consequences of the new regulation. Firstly, he clarified that from 6th April 2014 claimants will be required to contact ACAS before submitting a claim to the Tribunal. Another change that will take place in April will affect those requesting flexible working schemes, provided such requests are considered reasonable. Before concluding, Mr. Adjemian pointed out that the new financial penalties, the abolition of discrimination questionnaires and the new health assessment and advisory service are also a result of the new regulations.
Mr. Adjemian then gave the floor to Mr. Pavlos Paschali, who explained the new regulation regarding the Shared Parental Leave, which will now allow a maximum of 52 weeks to care for a child. Also, it will provide flexibility to split it between the parents.
Mr. Paschali also covered how zero-hour contracts will work according to the new regulations and provided attendees with interesting tribunal statistics. Did you now that the average number of employment claims per month amounts to 17,000?
To end the session, he provided three different case studies on victimization and discrimination and how the employment law acted.
The attendees were listening attentively throughout the session.
On a final note, both Mr. Paschali and Mr. Adjemian pointed out that although many new regulations will become effective at the end of January, several are still being reviewed and changes are expected to come in later on in the year.
After the session and the round of questions, participants exchanged their impressions of the event while enjoying some breakfast treats.
We take this opportunity to thank the attendees as well as Levenes Employment for delivering this seminar and sharing their expertise.
In order to find out about other activities that the Spanish Chamber is organising, we encourage you to keep an eye on our UPCOMING EVENTS section within our website.