UK government unveils long-awaited Employment Rights Bill – what next?


October, 16 2024

The Bill will ring in seismic shifts that substantially raise the bar for employers, write Ashurst’s Crowley Woodford and Ruth Buchanan

Credit: Shutterstock


By


Crowley Woodford
Ashurst

Ruth Buchanan
Ashurst



The long-awaited Employment Rights Bill is finally here. In what is the biggest boost for employment rights in decades, these extensive proposals mean employers will have plenty to grapple with moving forward. The provisions in the new Bill include day one rights on unfair dismissal, flexible working and more.

Day one rights on unfair dismissal – a historic move

This is one of the most significant changes, marking an important departure from the current legal position, whereby two years of service are required for employees to qualify for protection against unfair dismissal. Additional day one rights include the right to paternity leave, unpaid parental leave and bereavement leave. Making unfair dismissal a day one right is a historic move never before seen in the UK workplace.

However, it could open a can of worms with more claims reaching the Employment Tribunal system, which is already over-stretched and under-resourced. Employers will need to make sure that they follow a full and fair process each time they are faced with a potential dismissal situation following completion of the new (currently undefined) statutory probation period, while also considering the potential cost implications of statutory sick pay and paternity leave being more readily available to employees.

Flexible working – a further layer of complexity


It will now be more difficult for employers to refuse flexible working requests. This comes at a time where employers are already challenged with balancing modern day flexible working with their business and client needs. The Bill now adds a further layer of complexity for employers who may only refuse a flexible working request on a specified ground (the same as those which already exist) and if it is reasonable to refuse the request on that ground. This sets a high threshold for employers to meet.

Employers should prepare for these changes by reviewing their current flexible working policies and procedures.

Fire and rehire – solely where there is genuinely no alternative option

Changes mean that where an employee is dismissed as a result of not agreeing to proposed changes in their contract of employment, the dismissal will be automatically unfair unless the employer can demonstrate: (a) evidence of financial difficulties; and (b) that the need to make the change in contractual terms was unavoidable.

Fire and re-hire was always used as very much a last resort by employers, given that any dismissal through this route already gave rise to a potential unfair dismissal claim. However, it’s now clear that this route should only be considered by employers in circumstances where the business is facing financial distress.

Dismissal on return from parental leave – strengthening protections for pregnant women

The Bill introduces the ability for the Secretary of State to enact regulations that prohibit the dismissal of women who are pregnant, on maternity leave, and during a period of six months following their return to work. The Bill guidance notes clarify that there will be exceptions to this prohibition on dismissal in “specific circumstances”, although no further details are provided about what these circumstances might be.

This will give new mothers certainty that the law is on their side, but we await details about how such restrictions on dismissals would work in practice, and particularly what the exceptional “specific circumstances” might be. Employers will need to be aware of the potential costs of needing to keep certain employees employed throughout the specific period of protection from dismissal once they return from applicable family leave, and otherwise think carefully about how they plan and structure any dismissals.

Trade union provisions – a seismic shift in favour of unions and workers

There is now a duty on employers to inform all new employees of their right to join a union. This information must be included in the written statement of particulars that employers are required to provide to their new hires. In relation to statutory recognition, the Bill lowers the level of support unions need to show from workers to gain statutory recognition. The Bill also creates a right for trade unions to access workplaces to meet, represent, recruit or organise workers or to facilitate collective bargaining.

Employers will need to be prepared for increasing trade union membership, more extensive calls for recognition and the strengthening of unions.

Statutory sick pay – shifting the dial

Statutory sick pay (SSP) will be payable from day one of sickness. Additionally individuals earning below the Lower Earnings Limit (currently £123 per week) will also be entitled to SSP. This will be welcomed by workers but jars with fixing the perceived wider UK “sick-note culture”.

Those earning below the Lower Earnings Limit will be entitled to a lower level of SSP meaning that employers will have to operate a two tier SSP system which may cause unwelcome payroll headaches and system changes. Additionally, the related calculations and data will need to be tested and monitored for ongoing compliance.

Conclusion – a waiting game

As ever, the devil will be in the detail over the coming months with consultation documents to follow, but one thing is clear: the bar for employers will be substantially raised.

Crowley Woodford and Ruth Buchanan are London-based employment partners at Ashurst

news@globallegalpost.com

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‘Modern-day Moses’ behind massive church scam accused of rebranding as a ‘life coach’ to run Ponzi scheme

Exclusive: Convicted con artist Lindani “Daniel” Mangena was previously sentenced to seven years behind bars for bilking at least 1,000 parishioners

Justin Rohrlich
THE INDEPENDENT

Now out of prison, Daniel Mangena is being sued by angry investors (WTMJ-TV)

A “modern-day Moses” who spent seven years in a UK prison after scamming churchgoers out of more than $4 million has quietly re-emerged under a new name as a “life coach,” allegedly pushing a bogus get-rich-quick scam in the United States.

Lindani Mangena was convicted in a London court in 2008 following a years-long swindle that conned at least 1,000 parishioners from Seventh Day Adventist congregations in London. Promising returns of up to 3,000 percent, Mangena’s victims lost it all while he spent big on luxury cars, pricey real estate, and jaunts to Dubai’s seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel. Mangena, who was then 24, showed no detectable remorse, a judge in his case wrote in denying his appeal.

Today, Mangena is allegedly back in business — as “Daniel” Mangena — and running a Ponzi scheme that has duped a fresh set of unwitting victims, according to a lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

In the suit, which was filed October 10 in New York State Supreme Court, New York City real estate brokers Paul Gavriani and Vince Falcone claim Mangena not only stole close to $1 million from them, but has also fleeced an “untold” number of others who were unaware of his crooked past.

A review of New York court filings turns up a half-dozen claims of non-payment by various entities; in August, a federal judge in Manhattan found Mangena in default after failing to respond to claims by a New Jersey woman who accused Mangena of bilking her out of a six-figure sum “based on false promises,” after which he “gaslit” her into believing the losses were her own fault.

“I don’t recall it being a crime to have money problems,” Mangena, now 40, told The Independent in an email on Tuesday, noting that he has not yet been formally served with a copy of the lawsuit.

Mangena was previously found guilty of living large in destinations such as Dubai while his victims lost it all (Getty Images)

Mangena, who reportedly now lives either in the United Arab Emirates or Los Cabos, Mexico but would only cop to residing abroad, took exception to the notion he is running a Ponzi scheme. He claimed he planned on paying back the funds, which he described as a loan, “when I am financially able to do so,” and blamed Gavriani, Falcone, and others as being the “root cause of my current financial troubles.”


“I could easily have filed for bankruptcy given my current state but elected to ignore the attacks and stick to my financial commitments,” Mangena said.

He further accused Gavriani of being “one of a group of people who obsessively call me Lindani Mangena despite my name being Daniel.” However, Mangena is also listed in at least one other New York court case as Daniel Mangena, aka Lindani Mangena.


Gavriani, 54, first linked up with Mangena in October 2020, after he chanced upon him being interviewed on a podcast, according to the lawsuit. Mangena, who is interviewed regularly on finance webcasts, claims to have helped “hundreds of people [generate] passive income — earning money from investments with minimal effort — by helping them invest in unsexy businesses,” the lawsuit goes on, with Mangena himself claiming the technique earned him between $30,000 and $50,000 monthly.

Mangena is an appealing personality, and has been successful at getting himself airtime

His boasts intrigued Gavriani, who was approaching retirement and “looking to diversify his business interests into areas that aligned with his creative endeavors,” the lawsuit says.

Gavriani excitedly signed up for Mangena’s program, paying a $4,000 initiation fee, then $1,000 a month for weekly one-on-one coaching sessions with Mangena as well as “lifetime access” to his online offerings, according to the suit.

A little less than two months in, Mangena started to formulate a “vision” for Gavriani — who was unaware of his mentor’s criminal past — to earn enough passive income to quit his job and be the “artist” he always dreamed of being, according to the lawsuit. The big idea, or, the “Ideal Life Blueprint,” as Mangena called it, involved Gavriani bankrolling an ecommerce store on Facebook, which would sell bass fishing lures and non-prescription inhalers.

But after Gavriani, as directed, spent $30,000 to set up a slew of LLCs, and paid a $40,000 setup and management fee to the day-to-day operations team, the store opened in July 2021 — four months behind schedule — to a resounding flop. The operations people said the decision to offer the lures and inhalers had been “research-based,” and claimed to have no idea why the venture was failing, the lawsuit alleges. Gavriani demanded his money back, but never saw a dime, according to the suit.

With Gavriani’s finances in disarray, Mangena had a new plan to put money in his pocket: arbitraging textbooks by buying cheap and selling them for more on Amazon, the documents state. Mangena allegedly assured him that he personally would be running this store, so there was no chance of him getting ripped off.

So, Gavriani paid a $15,000 setup fee, and a month later, Mangena began sending weekly checks ranging from $600 to $750, the suit says.

Mangena’s “Ideal Life Blueprint” for setting Paul Gavriani and Vince Falcone on a path to financial freedom was to buy cheap books and sell them for a profit on Amazon (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Yet, Mangena never actually set up any store, and the so-called profits were either “his own funds or with the funds of others that Defendant Mangena had connived into ‘investing’ with him,” according to the lawsuit.

“In other words,” it says, “Mangena was operating a Ponzi scheme, in which he had entangled Mr. Gavriani.”

From there, Mangena convinced Gavriani to underwrite “bridge loans” for others in his group coaching class, doling out some $400,000 in return for $18,000 a month in interest payments, which came in as promised, the lawsuit states. In October 2022, Falcone inquired about possibly investing some of his own money with Mangena, and put up an initial payment of $100,000 to launch his own Amazon store.

Everything was smooth sailing, until January 2023, when Gavriani suddenly received half his usual monthly payment. Mangena blamed it on “some kind of issue with the bank.” But their supposedly guaranteed payments continued to dwindle, if they came in at all, the suit contends.

The underpayments continued into March, and when Gavriani questioned Mangena about it, he became upset, according to the lawsuit.

“Mangena berated Mr. Gavriani for having repeatedly contacted him about missing payments and because the call was supposedly dragging him away from hanging out with billionaire Richard Branson on Branson’s private island, a trip on which Defendant Mangena had spent ‘seven figures,’” the suit states.

Mangena denies saying he had paid seven-figures to pal around with Richard Branson (PA Wire)

A week later, Mangena sent Gavriani the other half of his money, and continued to provide the full amount each month, the lawsuit goes on. But by late spring 2023, the payments stopped altogether, the lawsuit says, adding that Gavriani and Falcone subsequently learned of Mangena’s UK fraud conviction.

When Gavriani tried to dissolve their co-ventures and cash out his funds, his lawsuit claims Mangena accused him of having “paranoid delusions,” threatened to sue, then disappeared.

“Lies and more lies,” Mangena told The Independent, insisting he never claimed to have paid to pal around with Richard Branson.

“Any ‘berating’ would be my chastisement for harassing my ex-wife and mother of my child on Facebook with this same grade of bogus claim to the point of her having to block him,” Mangena said. “The bottom line here is we had a loan agreement which includes terms for late payment, a loan which was paid for a significant period of time until which point I did indeed fall behind and asked for time to sort that.”

Mangena conceded that he did cut communication with Gavriani, but vowed that he “remain[s] committed to meeting the terms of loan repayment as per contract.”

For their part, Gavriani and Falcone’s lawsuit says they “have lost nearly $1,000,000 from both the money that Defendant Mangena stole from them,” and are asking for compensatory and punitive damages, plus legal fees.

“I have not been on US soil since September 2019,” Mangena said on Tuesday before ceasing contact, noting that he presently lacks a visa to enter the country. “... So, [I] cannot even be served, nor attend any court appearances, which Mr. Gavriani is aware of... That is all from me and thank you for the opportunity to respond.”

AMERIKAN RIGHT WING VIEW

Zelenskyy’s long-promised blueprint to end Russia war draws mixed reviews

'Victory plan' vows to reclaim land, join NATO, but some decry unrealistic 'wish list'

In this photo provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Oct. 16, 2024, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to parliamentarians at Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP) 

By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 16, 2024

The Russia-Ukraine war could end next year on terms favorable to Kyiv if the U.S. and NATO back an ambitious — and, by most accounts, unrealistic — five-point victory plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday as he outlined a proposal that seemed to fall flat across much of the West.

Mr. Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian parliament that his plan would end the war and guarantee his country’s security for decades.

It was the long-awaited public announcement of a plan the Ukrainian president has been discussing privately on trips to Washington, the United Nations and a string of European capitals in recent weeks. The plan aims to stem mounting public war fatigue in Ukraine and among its leading Western supporters.

Much of the plan reads like a Kyiv wish list while its troops battle to hold back advancing Russian forces that occupy nearly one-fifth of Ukraine in the south and east.

The plan calls for NATO to immediately extend a formal “unconditional invitation” to Kyiv, provide additional arms and satellite data, and help Ukraine “deploy a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” that would force Russia into “an honest diplomatic process” to end the fighting or face the destruction of its army.


Most of the key points mirror wish list items that Mr. Zelenskyy has publicly outlined several other times. Washington and other major alliance powers have long resisted some headline-worthy points, such as the call for Ukraine to immediately be invited into NATO. Part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for invading in February 2022 was to keep Ukraine out of NATO.

A NATO invitation seems wildly optimistic and centers on theoretical U.S. policy moves to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with American weapons.

Still, it is noteworthy that Mr. Zelenskyy attached such a clear, definitive time frame to the proposal. He insisted the war could end next year if his plan is adopted.

The Ukrainian leader said a clear signal of NATO membership would show Moscow that its war plans are “headed for defeat.”

Fatigue

Mr. Zelenskyy’s relatively specific end date seems to be a subtle acknowledgment of the fatigue setting in across the West, especially in the U.S., and that a victory by Republican Donald Trump in next month’s presidential election could put significantly more pressure on Kyiv to begin cease-fire talks with Moscow.


Amid the strong support for Ukraine in the U.S. and across Europe is a growing sense that the focus must turn to some kind of peace settlement short of total victory for either side. Mr. Zelenskyy’s comments appear designed, at least in part, to motivate war-weary allies to redouble their support for Ukraine with the understanding that peace is on the horizon.

“The urgency of the victory plan is now. These are points, most of which are thoroughly time-based,” Mr. Zelenskyy told Ukrainian lawmakers. “If we begin following this idea, this concrete victory plan right now, it may be possible to end the war no later than next year.”

The Ukrainian president also framed the conflict in global terms. “The fate of the coming decades is being decided by the actions of our global coalition in defense of Ukraine and international law,” he said.

“For us, it is entirely legitimate to turn to our partners for support in this battle. For our partners, it is completely practical to help us not only endure but also prevail in war for our lives. In doing so, they will help themselves just as much,” he said.

He suggested commercial profit for those who stood by his government. Ukraine has significant deposits of critical minerals such as uranium, titanium and lithium, and its farmlands are among the most extensive grain-producing fields in the world. A Putin victory, he said, would put those resources in the wrong hands.


Ukraine’s raw materials and physical assets are “strategically valuable resources, and they will strengthen either Russia and its allies or Ukraine and the democratic world.”

Mr. Zelenskyy’s victory plan will likely disappoint observers expecting a clear push toward ending the war that perhaps lays out broad terms for peace talks with the Kremlin.

President Biden spoke with the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, but a White House readout of the call said little about the administration’s position on the proposal.

“President Zelenskyy updated President Biden on his plan to achieve victory over Russia, and the two leaders tasked their teams to engage in further consultations on next steps,” the White House statement said.

At the State Department, spokesperson Matthew Miller also said little.


“We continue to engage with the government of Ukraine about that plan,” he said.

Some key political figures inside Ukraine said the proposal failed to offer anything that would dramatically change dynamics.

“First of all, it’s not a plan. Plan means something with concrete steps,” said opposition lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko. “It’s kind of a wish list from Ukraine for our partners, how they can and should support us. And it doesn’t look realistic. We were waiting for some real serious conversation about the situation and the strategy, and this is not that.”

Even NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte sounded skeptical.

“We are working with the Ukrainians to understand better … how this would help in ending the war,” he said.

NATO has given vague promises of a road map to eventual Ukraine membership, but the alliance has been reluctant to take concrete steps to bring Kyiv into the fold while it remains at war with Russia. Such a move could draw the entire bloc into the conflict. At the very least, the Kremlin would see it as a highly provocative act that may necessitate further Russian military aggression in Europe.

America’s role


It’s almost surely no coincidence that the Biden administration announced another $425 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine just hours after Mr. Zelenskyy’s speech. The assets include surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft missiles.

Since the February 2022 invasion, the U.S. has given Ukraine more than $61 billion in direct military aid and other financial and economic assistance. The administration pledged more aid in the next several months.

Western weapons have helped Ukraine capture and hold a significant swath of Russian territory in the Kursk region. The Kursk operation has given Ukraine new momentum in the war, though analysts warn that Russian forces are making gains in other areas and that Ukraine’s long-term trajectory in the conflict is still an uphill battle at best.

Indeed, Mr. Zelenskyy’s victory plan hinges on major influxes of additional military aid from the U.S. and other NATO nations. The proposal even calls for “assistance from our partners in manning our reserve brigades for the armed forces of Ukraine,” a step that seemingly would deepen the direct involvement of other Western powers in Ukraine’s future security.

The plan also calls for Western financial investment in Ukraine in the immediate postwar period that Mr. Zelenskyy said would pay off.


“This is an opportunity for the United States and our partners in the [Group of Seven] to work with Ukraine — the ally that can provide a return on investment,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mocked the plan as “ephemeral,” and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called it “a set of incoherent slogans.”

Elsewhere in Europe, key leaders reiterated that they are prepared to directly engage with the Kremlin and with Mr. Putin personally to help end the war.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told his country’s parliament that a peace conference must include Mr. Putin.

“If we are asked, we will also speak with the Russian president,” he said, though he insisted no decisions would be made with the full participation of Ukraine in any peace talks.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.


• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

 

Amazon joins Google, Microsoft in going nuclear • FRANCE 24 English

 

Wartime aircraft engine brought to life for first time at museum since 1945

Harry Booth
Tue 15 October 2024

The Hercules engine in action (Image: Kieran Wilkinson)

A wartime aircraft engine has been brought to life at RAF Elvington for the first time since 1945.

A Hercules engine, used in Halifax bombers in the Second World War, was started at the Yorkshire Air Museum on October 12 - the first time the airfield has seen it roar since the war.

Part of the museum's 'Thunder Day' celebrations, the engine was fired up for the public at the site formerly known as RAF Elvington.

Halifax bombers flew from Elvington from 1943 to 1945 and while the museum has a reconstructed Halifax in its collection, its engines do not run.

Museum spokesman, Jerry Ibbotson, said: "For Thunder Day this Autumn we wanted to do something special, so we spoke to Patric Smart from Thirsk who has a rebuilt Hercules engine in a rig that he demonstrates at events and displays.

"This was the type that carried Halifaxes into action night after night from bases such as Elvington.

"It makes an incredible sound and one that has not been heard here at Elvington since the last Halifax left at the end of the war. To hear it booming around the site gave us goosebumps."

Patric Smart’s father flew the famous Halifax – "Friday the 13th" – which completed 128 missions in the war.

 UK

Battersea Power Station's Turbine Theatre to close as union raises 'serious' concerns

Josh Salisbury
Wed 16 October 2024

Artistic director Paul Taylor-Mills (Matt Writtle)

An off-West End venue has announced it will close its doors as a union said it was probing “serious concerns” about workers’ rights.

The Turbine Theatre, a 92-seater venue in a railway arch at Battersea Power Station, said it would shut after its final production at Christmas, citing the challenge of making a small theatre economically viable.

The announcement came after actors’ union Equity told members in an email last week it was probing “serious concerns” that performers and stage management at The Turbine may have been “denied important rights” of “significant monetary value.”

In a statement announcing the closure, artistic director Paul Taylor-Mills said: “As the landscape of making theatre shifts, without serious investment and philanthropy, a 92 seat space just can't work and it's time for me to focus my efforts elsewhere.”

Mr Taylor-Mills, who is also artistic director of 312-seater The Other Palace theatre in Victoria, said he was “proud” of the theatre’s work, which hosted shows such as My Son’s A Queer and I Wish You Well which have since gone on to have major runs.

“The Turbine Theatre has been an absolute labour of love,” he said, adding that his focus would now turn to The Other Palace, which is set to host the UK musical adaptation of the popular Percy Jackson series.

“It shouldn't have worked. But it did and I'm so incredibly proud of the lives it's changed and the dreams it's made come true.

“Creating this incredible venue, with the people that believed in what it could be has been a career highlight and I'm so thankful for the memories.”

The news came after the union Equity appealed for its members in an email last week to make contact if they needed support, saying it was concerned that some staff may potentially have “been denied important rights that could be of significant monetary value”.

An Equity spokesperson said: “A number of Equity members have come forward with concerns which the union is providing support on.

“We hope we can resolve the issues of concern constructively with the Turbine Theatre and Paul Taylor-Mills, and we are in contact with them to that end.”

A union spokesperson declined to give more details on what those concerns were.

The Turbine Theatre did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

UK

Super sewer: Thames Water customers will pay £25 annual levy for another two decades to fund £4.5bn project

Ross Lydall
Tue 15 October 2024 


Thames Water customers will pay a £25 levy on their bills for about another two decades to repay the cost of the £4.5bn “super sewer”.

The 15-mile pipeline, which was officially declared in use on Monday, more than eight years after construction began, is being funded through a surcharge, currently three per cent, on domestic water bills.

A decade ago, when the project was first envisaged, Tideway, the firm that has built the super sewer, and Thames Water committed to charging “no more than £25 a year” at 2014/15 prices.

Andy Mitchell, chief executive of Tideway, said the project – which will drastically reduce the amount of raw sewage that ends up in the Thames - was “like a mortgage arrangement that quietly will be paid off over decades”.

How the super sewer works (Tideway)

Speaking to The Standard on Monday, Mr Mitchell said: “We believe this year that it will be at its peak. It will fall away thereafter.

“Quite at what pace it falls away really will be a matter between Tideway and Thames Water and the regulator every five years, to decide what should happen over the coming five years.

“It’s variable and decisions will be made in future decades as to how long that carries on.”

Thames Water has been approached for comment.

The project has created seven new public “piazzas” along the riverbank, including at Putney, Chelsea, Vauxhall, on the Victoria Embankment and beside Blackfriars bridge.

The space at Blackfriars – the largest of the seven - will be named Bazalgette Embankment, in honour of Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineer who created the capital’s first sewage system.

“We don’t think he got enough credit for what he did, so we have been able to get that named after him,” Mr Mitchell said.

“This will be a continuation of what Bazalgette did. We hope it’s a place that people will enjoy for many, many decades to come.

“We have the Victoria site opposite site opposite the London Eye, which is going to be a fantastic site in future years to see the fireworks on New Year’s Eve.”

The original layout for Cycle Superhighway 3 will be reinstated next summer (TfL)

The capital’s flagship cycle route, the CS3 cycle superhighway, now known as cycleway 3, along the Victoria Embankment, is expected to be fully reinstated next summer, when Tideway vacate its riverside work site between Embankment Tube station and Blackfriars bridge.

Construction works have required the narrowing of the cycleway near the Tube station and the re-routing of the westbound and eastbound ramps that allow cyclists and vehicles to move between Blackfriars bridge and the Embankment.

Mr Mitchell said: “We are talking to TfL and have agreed that they will do that reinstatement. We are paying for it, but they will do it. Because we are demobilising it makes more sense for them to do it.

“As we finish that site next summer, we will vacate the space. That will allow TfL to put the superhighway back where it was before we started.”

The new piazzas that have been created on the Albert Embankment (Tideway)

The super sewer’s flood defences are operating in four out of 21 sites, all in west London – Acton, Barn Elms and two portals at King George’s Park.

Next week the central London portals at Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars Bridge and Albert Embankment are expected to come on stream.

All 21 sites should be in use by the end of the year. “We are hoping another six to eight weeks and we will be there,” Mr Mitchell said.

During heavy rainfall, they will direct overflows into the super sewer, which has been dug under the river between Hammersmith bridge and Limehouse, and takes the discharges direct to Beckton sewage treatment works in east London.

Prior to the super sewer opening, untreated sewage was discharged into the Thames about 60 days a year.

Mr Mitchell said: “This is going to make a fundamental difference into the health of the river.”

Asked about London mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to make the Thames swimmable within a decade, Mr Mitchell said the super sewer would make it much cleaner – but he wouldn’t personally want to swim in the river.

He said: “If you are out there swimming in the tidal Thames, with all the traffic and a 7m tide range and the fast currents, arguably the quality of the water is the least of your problems. It’s not an advisable place to swim.

“But on the point of: ‘Will the water be an awful lot cleaner?’ Yes, it will.

“Technically, this water would be of a condition that – if that was the only consideration – you could [go swimming]. I wouldn’t.

‘A triumph’: London’s £19bn Elizabeth line is named best new architecture in Britain

Oliver Wainwright

THE GUARDIAN
Wed 16 October 2024 

‘As if the entire line has been moulded from a single substance’ … the Elizabeth line.Photograph: Hufton + Crow


With the longest platforms, the biggest tunnels and the fastest trains on the entire London underground, the Elizabeth line boasts a dizzying list of superlatives, carrying more people a day than any other train line in the country. It is now deemed to have the best design, too – being named as the winner of the 2024 RIBA Stirling prize for the finest architecture in the UK. The competition was stiff: from the National Portrait Gallery in London to the renovation of the Park Hill estate in Sheffield, from a Dorset dairy farm conversion to a street of social housing in Hackney and the 67-acre regeneration of King’s Cross.

The Lizzie line is a worthy winner, providing a dazzling demonstration that, for all chaos surrounding HS2, Britain is still capable of pulling off gargantuan transport infrastructure projects with style and panache. Stepping off the escalators and entering its streamlined white tunnels is like being teleported to a parallel universe, worlds away from the rest of the creaking, sooty tube network.

From the airy, clutter-free concourses to the soft acoustic, calm lighting and clear signage, every detail has been honed to make the passenger experience as simple and stress-free as possible. It is a model of standardisation and prefabrication, built with rare precision, its effortless elegance belying the fiendish complexity of coordinating the 73-mile-long endeavour, and the transformative effect it has had on the lives of millions.


“The Elizabeth line is a triumph in architect-led collaboration, offering a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport,” said RIBA president Muyiwa Oki, chair of the Stirling prize jury. “It rewrites the rules of accessible public transport and sets a bold new standard for civic infrastructure, opening up the network, and by extension London, to everyone.”

The prize has been awarded to the “line-wide” design of the stations below ground level, led by Grimshaw Architects, with engineering by AtkinsRéalis, way-finding by Maynard and lighting by Equation. Different architects were responsible for each station above ground, with more mixed results. Unusually for the architecture-centric award, the other consultants have been named as equal co-designers, reflecting the collaborative nature of the £18.6bn endeavour, which led to a truly integrated result.

While other tube stations are cluttered with signs and light fittings added haphazardly over the years, the Elizabeth line has condensed and rationalised everything into a unified whole. Service “totems” on the concourses – inspired by the uplighter columns of Charles Holden’s 1930s tube stations – integrate everything from lighting and cameras to signage and speakers, as do seamless panels above the platform edge screens, all easily accessible for maintenance.

Corralling together all the gubbins means that the full volume of the tunnels can be expressed, with no need for suspended ceilings and walls to hide the services. The result feels extraordinarily spacious, with broad concourses that melt into wide cross-passages, all clad with sinuous white panels, as if the entire line has been moulded from a single substance.

The fluid geometry helps to minimise blind spots and improve people flow, and it also reflects how the tunnels were made. Rather than using iron or concrete retaining rings, which form right-angled corners as seen elsewhere on the underground, concrete was sprayed directly on to the exposed earth after excavation, creating softer tunnel intersections. This smooth, tubular world is lined with a continuous skin of white glass fibre-reinforced concrete panels, whose design was honed to reduce the number of panel types from 80 to just nine, saving costs and material – the carbon payback time should be about 10 years.

Full-size concourse mock-ups, built in a warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, allowed the design team to perfect every detail, and enabled the contractors to see what they were expected to do, and refine their own prototypes. It paid off: the result has the precise quality of a factory-made product more than a building.

There are clever details throughout, which few will notice on their commute. The lighting temperature shifts subtly, from warmer diffused light on the platforms and concourses, to a cooler tone in the “faster” cross-passages, to encourage people to keep moving. Above head height, the concrete panels are perforated, with acoustic matting hidden behind to absorb noise. This adds to the sense of calm, and helps make the line accessible to those who find tube travel stressful or intimidating, along with step-free access throughout.

For all the ingenuity on show, it’s not perfect. The focus on line-wide consistency underground, and diverse “contextual” design at street level, seems back to front. It would make more sense for the stations to be consistent and easily recognisable on the street – like the gleaming oxblood red tiles and arched windows of Leslie Green’s iconic Edwardian tube stations – and then different at platform level, so you can easily spot where you are from a crowded carriage. The Lizzie line’s efficient blur of beige could do with a few more splashes of character, like Eduardo Paolozzi’s mosaics at Tottenham Court Road, or Annabel Grey’s enamel panels at Marble Arch, or the slanting indigo tiled columns of Will Alsop’s North Greenwich. Instead, public art is confined to a few bolt-on baubles above ground.

Similarly, the marvel of these cavernous underground cathedrals soon fades away when you leave central London, as the line makes its way to the outer reaches of the capital above ground. An immense amount of design intelligence was lavished on the central stations, but the peripheral stops feel distinctly second class. They may sport the same regal purple roundels, but the banal boxes of Ilford and Ealing Broadway have little in the way of award-winning architecture. Was it too much to hope that the line’s Stirling prize quality could extend beyond Zone 2?


Elizabeth Line wins prestigious RIBA Stirling Award for architecture

Robert Dex and Arts Correspondent

EVENING STANDARD
Wed 16 October 2024 


Elizabeth Line wins prestigious RIBA Stirling Award for architecture


The Elizabeth Line has won the prestigious Stirling Prize for Architecture.

The transport system was hailed as “a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport” by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) judges.

It saw off competition from projects including the multi-million pound renovation of the National Portrait Gallery and the masterplan transforming the area around King’s Cross Station.

The rail line, which crosses central London connecting Reading and Heathrow to Essex, was designed by Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis and fetaures wide open platforms and steep escalators to carry its commuters.

The Elizabeth Line has been praised for its style (Hufton + Crow)

It is used by around 700,000 passengers every weekday who travel across 62 miles of track and through 26 miles of tunnels.

The excavation project which ensured it avoided already existing sewage systems and tube lines uncovered archealogical treasures including the remains of a 55-milllion-year-old wooly mammoth as well as seeing six million tonnes of earth removed to make room for the network which was then used tobuild a new nature reserve in Essex.

It was officially opened by the Queen in May 2022 but this is the first year it has been eligible to be considered for the prize.

Queen Elizabeth at the opening of the Elizabeth Line (AFP)

RIBA President Muyiwa Oki, who chaired the jury, said: “The Elizabeth Line is a triumph in architect-led collaboration, offering a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport.

“It’s an uncluttered canvas that incorporates a slick suite of architectural components to create a consistent, line-wide identity – through which thousands of daily passengers navigate with ease.

“Descending into the colossal network of tunnels feels like entering a portal to the future, where the typical commuter chaos is transformed into an effortless experience.

“This is architecture of the digital age – a vast scheme that utilises cutting-edge technology to create distinctive spatial characteristics and experiences .

“It rewrites the rules of accessible public transport, and sets a bold new standard for civic infrastructure, opening up the network and by extension, London, to everyone.”

UK

Office worker wins compensations after boss refused to say hello to her three times

Brooke Davies

Published Oct 16, 2024,

METRO UK

Andrew Gilchrist deliberately ignored one of his employees

 (Picture: LinkedIn/Google)

An office worker is set to receive compensation after her boss refused to say hello to her.

Nadine Hanson, a recruitment manager, greeted her new boss Andrew Gilchrist three times when she arrived for work but he deliberately ignored her every time, an employment tribunal heard.

Mr Gilchrist, 62, was angry at Ms Hanson because he thought she was late but he had no idea she had been at a medical appointment.

He then gave two colleagues a pay rise without telling her within just an hour of confronting her at their office in Scunthorpe.


His behaviour led to Ms Hanson winning her claim, with Employment Judge Sarah Davies concluding his behaviour was ‘unreasonable’.

She said: ‘That is conduct, from the owner and Director of the new employer, that is calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence.

‘While it might not, by itself, be a fundamental breach of contract, it was capable of contributing to such a breach.’

Mr Gilchrist, who had just taken over the business, was ‘deliberately undermining’ regional operations manager Ms Hanson to try to force her to leave, it was heard.

Mr Gilchrist claimed at the tribunal that he ‘could not remember’ whether he said hello because it was so busy (Picture: LinkedIn)

He pushed her phone out of the way when she tried to explain she had an appointment, suggested that she ‘leave’, and went behind her back by giving two staff members pay rises without informing her.

Ms Hanson, who eventually quit and suffered from anxiety due to how she was treated by Mr Gilchrist, has now successfully sued his company for unfair dismissal.

She also won a claim of unauthorised deduction from wages after Mr Gilchrist withheld her sick pay because he thought she was faking being unwell.

Ms Hanson is now in line to receive compensation from Interaction Recruitment Ltd, which has 30 offices across the UK.

The tribunal heard Ms Hanson was Northern Regional Operations Manager in Scunthorpe, Lincs, working for another recruitment company.

In September 2023 Interaction Recruitment acquired the company and managing director Mr Gilchrist travelled to the Scunthorpe office to meet Ms Hanson and two other staff members that worked under her.

The tribunal, in Leeds, found that after a ‘get to know you’ meeting of less than an hour, Mr Gilchrist formed a ‘snap judgement’ of Ms Hanson that she was not pulling her weight, despite it being unwarranted.

A tribunal report said: ‘It is equally clear that Mr Gilchrist quickly formed the impression that [Ms Hanson] “did very little work and left her two colleagues to do the work” and that he was “not happy”.

‘This was apparently on the basis of a “get to know you” team meeting lasting less than an hour with everyone present, and without any proper information about what [she]did or proper discussion with her about that.’

Days later, he made an unannounced visit to the Scunthorpe office.

‘[Ms Hanson] arrived late that day, because she had a medical appointment. It was a busy day because they had arranged for a number of candidates to come in and be interviewed. There were about eight candidates filling in forms when she arrived.

‘Ms Hanson’s evidence is that she said good morning to Mr Gilchrist three times, but he ignored her.

‘They went into the meeting room. She attempted to show him her phone with evidence of her medical appointment, but he pushed it to one side.

‘He said, “I suggest if you don’t want to be here that you leave”. She replied, “After 20 years of working for the company, the only way I will be leaving is if you make me redundant”.

‘The meeting became quite heated. She tried to tell Mr Gilchrist about how she performed her role.’

Mr Gilchrist claimed at the tribunal that he ‘could not remember’ whether he said hello because it was so busy, but said he thinks he said ‘hello to everyone’.


The tribunal found his evidence to be ‘wholly unconvincing’.

The tribunal heard within an hour of the incident with Ms Hanson, he sent an email to her two direct reports, giving them a pay rise.

Ms Hanson was ‘humiliated’ because she was not informed.

In October 2023, Ms Hanson handed in her eight-week notice, saying she had been ‘made to feel undervalued’ and that it left her ‘feeling undermined and causing her sleepless nights, upset and anxiety’.

She was signed off with anxiety during her notice period – but the tribunal heard Mr Gilchrist refused to pay her sick pay because he didn’t believe her.

Ms Hanson won claims of unfair dismissal and unauthorised deduction from wages.

Concluding, Employment Judge Sarah Davies said it was ‘implausible’ that Mr Gilchrist didn’t hear Ms Hanson’s greeting and that he ‘deliberately’ ignored her.

Judge Davies said: ‘I find that there was no reasonable or proper cause for deliberately ignoring [her] when she arrived at work, despite her greeting him three times.

‘That is conduct, from the owner and Director of the new employer, that is calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence. While it might not, by itself, be a fundamental breach of contract, it was capable of contributing to such a breach.
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‘When she told him that the only way she was going was if she was made redundant, he determined that she had no future with the business.

‘That is why he offered pay rises to her staff members within an hour and without discussing it with her.

‘The situation was not that urgent… He simply did not want [Ms Hanson] there anymore.’

Compensation will be determined at a later date.

Charles III will be the first King of Australia to visit its shores. He could also be the last

By Jess Carniel - The Conversation
16 Oct, 2024 

Then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana stand in front of Uluru during their 1983 tour of Australia. Photo / Getty Images

The King and Queen are set to tour Australia and Samoa later this month in Charles’ first visit to both countries since his coronation.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s upcoming visit to Australia is significant for several reasons. It is Charles’ first visit since ascending to the throne – as well as the first time a British male head of state has visited Australia.

Some observers are also wondering whether it might be one of the last royal tours, as debates about Australia potentially becoming a republic are reignited.

As the monarchy tries to “modernise” alongside growing support for republicanism, this visit will be one to watch.

As Prince of Wales, Charles had a long and successful track record of royal tours to Australia, having visited 16 times. The visits included a term attending Geelong Grammar School in 1966, as well as the 1983 tour with Princess Diana that saw Australians caught up in Di-mania – and Charles reportedly gripped by jealousy.

But Charles’ royal predecessors weren’t as lucky in their trips down under. His own grandfather, King George VI, planned to visit Australia in the late 1940s with Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, but the tour was postponed due to his poor health. While he had previously visited as the Duke of York, George VI never made it here as King.
King George VI was born in 1895 and reigned from 1936 until his death in 1952. Photo / Getty Images

The very first royal visit to Australia – Prince Alfred’s 1867 tour – had all appearance of being cursed. One of his crew members drowned during the first stop in South Australia. Several more people died in a major fire accident and a Catholic-Protestant skirmish in Melbourne.

Most memorably – certainly for Alfred – was an assassination attempt on the prince in Sydney. This, interestingly, is an experience King Charles has also had.

During Charles’ 1994 visit, student protester David Kang fired blanks from a starter pistol in protest of Australia’s treatment of Cambodian refugees. The then Prince of Wales wasn’t harmed and Kang went on to become a barrister.

For non-British royals, however, Sydney has been a lucky location. Danish King Frederick X’s decidedly modern romance with Tasmania-born Queen Mary famously began when they met at a bar during the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Prince or King – does it matter?

This will be Charles’ 17th visit to Australia, but his first as reigning monarch. This means he is visiting not on behalf of the Head of State, but as the Head of State.

The royal couple’s planned Australian engagements are as strategic as they are symbolic. They reflect carefully curated and ostensibly “non-political” issues such as environmental sustainability, cancer research and family violence.

The visit also includes a meeting with Indigenous representatives. Notably, it is the first royal tour to not use the term “walkabout” to describe public meet-and-greets, as this term had been criticised as cultural appropriation.

It seems Charles’ modernised monarchy is seeking to distance itself from overtly colonial language – as much as a foreign monarchy can, anyway. The King has yet to respond to Indigenous leaders calling for an apology for British colonisers’ genocides of First Nations peoples.
The main purpose of the visit is for King Charles to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa. Photo / Getty Images

Although the Australian media has focused on the stops in Canberra and Sydney, the main purpose of the tour is for the King to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa between October 21 and 26.

It is the first time the meeting will be hosted by a Pacific Island state. The talks are an important opportunity for the King to highlight issues such as climate change, to which small island states in the Pacific are particularly vulnerable.
Are people happy about the visit?

All six state premiers have declined their invitations to meet the King at his welcome reception in Canberra, citing other commitments. Their excuses might be genuine in some cases. For example, Queensland Premier Steven Miles is in the last few weeks of an election campaign.

However, critics from the monarchist camp have viewed the move as a political response to debates over whether Australia should remain a constitutional monarchy with the King as its head of state.


A YouGov Australia poll published on the first anniversary of Charles’ ascension showed Australians are divided on republicanism. While 32% want to become a republic “as soon as possible”, 35% preferred to remain a constitutional monarchy and 12% wanted to become a republic after the King’s death. The remaining respondents didn’t know.

Notably, the poll found republican sentiment had increased since Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.

The Albanese government established an assistant minister for the republic upon entering office in 2022 (although the portfolio was abolished with this year’s reshuffle). Upon taking the role, assistant minister Matt Thistlethwaite suggested the “twilight of [Queen Elizabeth’s] reign” presented “a good opportunity for a serious discussion about what comes next for Australia”.

Republican sentiment in Australia has increased since Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Photo / Getty Images

Charles doesn’t seem to be taking all this too personally. In a letter responding to the Australian Republican Movement in March this year, his private secretary said the King viewed this as “a matter for the Australian public to decide”.

The royal tour and the meeting in Samoa will be important opportunities for the monarchy to connect with Australia and other Commonwealth nations.

By presenting itself as a modern institution engaged with contemporary issues such as climate change, the monarchy will also have to engage with the possibility of new political identities for its former colonies.


Jess Carniel is an Associate Professor in Humanities at University of Southern Queensland.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.