Employment Law in UK Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Employment Law in UK - Case Study Example Since, the European law prevails over the domestic law, the domestic courts and tribunals have to apply relevant principles of the European law, which in this context refers to the EC Treaty and directives2. Sometimes, a court or tribunal directly applies the European law and sometimes, where there seems to be a conflict between domestic and European law, the European Court of Justice or the ECJ is asked to decide on the correct interpretation of the law. The ECJ's objective is to ensure the uniform interpretation and effective application of European law. In case of a conflict between domestic legislation and European law, an important consideration is whether the law concerned has direct effect in the UK. Article 141 of the EC Treaty3 has direct effect between private citizens or the horizontal effect and between private citizens and the state or the vertical effect. As per the provisions of the European Communities Act 1972, the European Community law forms part of UK domestic law. ... In respect of appellant claims, Section 2(4) of the 1970 Act is relevant and in order to be admissible in an employment tribunal, these claims have to be filed within the statutory time limit. In such cases the employment tribunal is empowered to grant a successful applicant the right to retrospective access to the scheme, subject to the payment of appropriate contributions, wherever the periods of employment were not earlier than the 8th of April 1976. The significance of this date is that from this date direct effect was given to the judgment of the European Court of Justice in Defrenne v Sabena6 and in this case the court held that article 119 of the EC Treaty7 provided for equal treatment in the right to join an occupational pension scheme. In Alabaster -v- Barclays Bank Plc8 Mrs. Alabaster pleaded that her employer's failure to incorporate her pay rise into her SMP was contrary to the Equal Pay Act 1970 and Article 141 of the EC Treaty. The ECJ ruled in her favour and held that there was a breach of EU law, resulting in the UK Government amending the SMP rules. The Employment Appeal Tribunal or EAT has ruled that the Equal Pay Act 1970 is not infringed by a pay system wherein employees with more service and experience were paid more than those with lesser service and experience even though most of the latter are female and most of the former are male. The argument that the ECJ decision in Nimz v Frie und Hansestadt Hamburg9 is not good law because of Handels- og Kontorfunktionrernes Forbund I Danmark v Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening10, is untenable, because the first case was concerned with part time employees whereas the

Prepared case analysis of a single case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Prepared analysis of a single - Case Study Example The increased size of the company has been one of the components that have created the company’s strong competitive platform. However, the sales of the season were below the expectations. The company made substantial losses due to the low returns. The management reacted to the situation by selling 15 stores to raise some cash. The management of the company has provided both income statement and the statement of financial position to assist in assessing the actual problem faced by the organization. Based on the company’s income statement, the net sales have steadily been increasing since the year 2006 to the most current year 2011. Similar trend applies to the earnings before interest and tax and the net income. However, as at the end of 2011, both earnings before interest and tax and the net income for the company sharply decreased to a negative figure. In the year 2010, the EBIT stood at $ 312 millions, but dropped to $ -9 million. Similarly, the net income during the financial period 2010 was $ 189 million but dropped to $ -49 million. Surprisingly, the net sales of the year2010 and 2011 were $ 3,314 million and $ 3,351 million, indicating an increase in the figure between the two periods. Therefore, the main questions in the case study are as follows: first, what seems to be the problem with the Hobby Horse company? Second, are any issues to be addressed revealed by the company’s financial statement? In order to answer the second question and probably find some leads to address the second, the following financial ratios have been conducted for a four year period (2008-2011): gearing ratios, profitability ratios, and liquidity ratios for Debt/equity - ratio indicates the proportion of fixed charge capital in the capital structure of a firm. Concerning Hobby Horse Company, the ratios from 2008 to 2011 are 0.6195, 0.4958, 0.2193 and 0.349 respectively. The ratio interpretation for the