The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has updated its code of practice on subject access requests (SARs) to reflect two important Court of Appeal judgments published earlier this year: Dawson-Damer and others v Taylor Wessing LLP and Ittihadieh v 5-11 Cheyne Gardens RTM Company Ltd and others. The revised code provides useful guidance on how the ICO expects to see SARs dealt with in light of these cases, for example, by clarifying the scope of the disproportionate effort exception and the factors a court can take into account when deciding whether or not to order an organisation to comply with a request. The code also confirms that the motives behind a SAR are not relevant. Employers should consider whether changes to their procedures on SARs are necessary to reflect these changes.

The Office for National Statistics and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have published the 2016 statistics on trade union membership. The number of employees who are trade union members is 6.2 million, the lowest rate of trade union membership recorded since 1995. This is a 4.2% decrease over the year from 2015, the largest annual fall recorded since 1995, despite an increase in the number of employees during that period. The proportion of employees who were trade union members fell to 23.5% in 2016, from 24.7 % in 2015. Both private sector and public sector memberships have declined, with the overall proportion of employees who are union members remaining much lower in the private sector (13.4%) than the public sector (52.7%).

On 21 June 2017, the Queen's Speech set out details of policies and legislation for the 2017-2019 Parliamentary session. Key points of interest in employment law include an increase in the national living wage to 60% of median earnings by 2020; a new Data Protection Bill to implement the EU General Data Protection Regulation which comes into force in May 2018; an Immigration Bill to establish a new national policy on immigration; a commitment to the recently-published Taylor Review of Modern Employment Practices; and a pledge to make further progress in tackling the gender pay gap and all forms of discrimination.

The Society of Occupational Medicine has recently published a paper calling for more investment in occupational health. The paper highlights the business case for providing occupational health services as well as the benefits for employees and the wider economy. For example, occupational health services can improve work performance and productivity; reduce absenteeism; help prevent work-related illnesses; and enhance employee engagement. The paper also stresses that, although it can be difficult to quantify these benefits, investment in multi-disciplinary occupational health services should be highly cost-effective.

BSI, the business standards company, has launched a new standard for employers to provide guidance on best practice in promoting diversity and inclusion (BS76005 'Valuing people through diversity and inclusion – code of practice for organisations). The new standard includes recommendations for people management and development; the evolution of more inclusive policies, procedures and behaviours; and building productive relationships with third parties such as customers, clients and within communities. It is relevant to all organisations, regardless of size or sector, and takes an approach which goes beyond the protections in the Equality Act 2010. The standard also applies to those working on behalf of an organisation, such as agencies, sub-contractors and the self-employed.

The EU Article 29 Working Party, which provides expert advice on EU data protection law, has recently issued an opinion on data processing at work. This updates previous opinions and covers the additional obligations to be placed on employers by the EU General Data Protection Regulation. The opinion identifies areas where new technologies pose a risk to employees' privacy, including recruitment, in-employment screening, monitoring of ICT usage inside and outside the workplace, video monitoring systems, and international transfers of employee data. Useful guidance is provided on how employers can balance their own legitimate interests in these areas with employees' reasonable expectations of privacy. Consent will not be a valid legal basis for most data processing at work because of the imbalance of power between employer and employee. Valid grounds include processing necessary for the performance of the employment contract or to comply with employment law. However, processing must still be proportionate to the business need.

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