WAITROSE STAFF UNMASKED

 

That's an 'A' board you see. It is outside the Havant, Hants branch of Waitrose at which a relatively large proportion of staff will not wear face coverings while on the shop floor. Management say they encourage them to do so. Indeed, they give the same encouragement to shoppers and, from my experience, most shoppers positively respond. There is not unanimous agreement on the effectiveness of face coverings in enclosed spaces. But I suggest that in shops, at least, there should be respect for the wishes of the owners and face covered shoppers who believe that protection is afforded by the wearing of coverings by all customers and staff for whom wearing a covering does not raise any health issue.  Here's a summary of my recent email exchange on the subject with the Waitrose executive office. If you bear with me, you will find out more about the 'A' board.

Me to Waitrose

13/08/2021

Good Afternoon

I have shopped in your Havant, Hants store every day this week. I am appalled to see a material number of staff - three of them today were supervisory - without face coverings and without any displayed indication that they were exempt from wearing such a covering. What sort of message does this convey to shoppers who are civilly asked to take various health precautions and, from what I have observed, are in the vast majority of cases doing so? In short, your shoppers are behaving more responsibly than your staff. Why do you not prevail on staff at the store to be masked or, at the very least, withdraw from client contact if they refuse? By virtue of the large proportion of unmasked staff, it is highly unlikely they were all exempt in any event.

Waitrose to Me

13/08/2021

Dear Stephen

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

....In line with government guidance, we will recommend that our customers and Partners in England continue to wear a face covering unless exempt, from 19 July. The decision over whether to do so or not, when in our shops, will be for each individual to take, based on their own judgment.

I do appreciate your concern, despite the relaxation of Government restrictions. Across all our stores we will be retaining perspex screens and hand sanitising stations, We will also maintain all of the hand hygiene and store cleaning disciplines which have served us well since the start of the pandemic.

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns and I will ensure your comments are fed back to the branch manager at Havant.

....

Me to Waitrose

14/08/2021

Dear Josh

Thank you and noted. But that is a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs, is it not? What is the legal impediment to you taking a Partner who refuses to wear a mask off the shop floor to discharge other duties so that customers are not exposed to them and the danger they present? There is none of which I am aware.

Me to Waitrose

14/08/2021

Dear Josh

An update, Just back from waitrose, Havant. The lady on 'customer services' is unmasked. Customer disservices?

Waitrose to me

16/08/2021

Dear Stephen

Thank you for getting back in touch and for your suggestion.

I'm very sorry that you're unhappy with our response and I do understand how you are feeling.

Unfortunately this isn't something we would be able to do with our Partners due to operation of our shops - the majority of the tasks take place on the shop-floor and there aren't dedicated 'back of house' teams.

I will continue to pass on your feedback to the branch manager as well as to our leadership teams to review.

Me to Waitrose

17/08/2021

Josh

...

I observe today that the safety guidance to customers is displayed close to the store entrance but inside so you have to be inside to read it whereas my recollection is that it was formerly displayed in the front window (possibly, as well as inside). For the obvious reason, exclusive display inside is not sufficient, is it?

Waitrose to me

17/08/2021

Dear Stephen

Thanks for your response.

...

I'm sorry to hear that some of our safety guidance is positioned inside the branch. I will speak to branch management about this to make the signage visible to customers outside of the branch. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.  

Me to Waitrose

21/08/2021

Josh

...I would have hoped - as I am sure would you - that this particular complaint could have been put to bed but, alas, I have more depressing news. The signage and the positioning have not changed and so it would seem that your direction or advice (as the case may be) has not been heeded. I have started on the task of producing a notice that can be prominently displayed in a front window and which follows the wording of the covid notice to be found within the store. If the branch management team can take  a few minutes off from encouraging staff to wear face coverings and contact me, arrangements can be made for me to affix the notice to a suitable position. I would not make any charge for my services.

On my visit to the store this afternoon, only two cashiers were face covered which then increased to three. One of the uncovered was the young lady on the fast 'baskets only' till. I would have thought that this was unsatisfactory as this till surely needs to be well patronised to take the pressure off the other tills but I did observe that customers, as did I, were unsurprisingly keeping their distance from her. Perhaps those members of management who are singing the praises of mask coverings need to raise the volume of their voices or take a course in the powers of persuasion.

Waitrose to me

24/08/2021

Dear Stephen

I'm very sorry to hear that the signage has not been moved to a clearer position outside. 

I have spoke with...the branch manager who has arranged for a sign to be placed outside. They have also ordered a new signage display which will sit outside to display the safety message to customers. I apologise that this wasn't in place previously.

Me To Waitrose

04/09/2021

Dear Josh

Yes, it is me again. The signage outside is an 'A' board: one side has advertising material and the other side is devoted to covid health precautions. During the week commencing 23 August 2021, the board on successive days was situated so that the health precautions side could only be read by customers approaching the store along the pavement outside in one direction or so that the health precautions side was only visible from inside the store and facing out (see photograph above which was sent) and on one day it was absent.

I think that Waitrose, Havant is having a laugh. Don't you?

Waitrose to me

06/09/2021

Thanks for getting back and I hope you are keeping well.

.... I will raise this with.. the branch manager so he can address this with the team and look to resolve this.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I hope you have a lovely rest of the day and rest of the week.

Safe shopping.

BEAT COURT FEE RISES:UPDATE

I recently warned of imminent court fee increases. See https://www.breakinglaw.co.uk I can now report that those increases will be coming into force on 30 September 2021. They are introduced by the Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2021 (SI 2021/985) which were laid before Parliament yesterday 06 September 2021.

I have kept this update short so that you can get on with preparing paperwork to beat the rises instead of wasting time reading my attempts at humour. But, for the avoidance of any doubt, these rises are positively not a joke. 

BEAT COURT FEE RISES

As predicted in 'The Return of Breaking Law'  a wigful (to fit an enormous head) of court fees will soon be introduced. To be precise, 129 of them in civil and family proceedings as well as in certain cases in the Court of Protection. To avoid paying the extra, you need to take the step which will attract the fee as soon as you can. The Ministry of Justice has said that the increased fees will be brought into force in early Autumn 2021 which means we could be looking at the start of October 2021 or shortly after.  You can find full details of each and every increased fee at https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/increasing-selected-court-fees-income-thresholds/results/court-fees-increasing-consultation-response.pdf

Here are some of the increases -

To start a divorce, nullity or civil partnership dissolution case  - up £43 to £593

To issue a county court or High Court application notice (form N244) - up £20 to £275

To issue a county court or High Court application notice BY CONSENT (form N244) - up £8 to £108

Hearing fee (otherwise called trial fee) for county court small claims case for £300 or less - up £2 to £27

Ditto for case for more than £300 but no more than £500 - up £4 to £59

Ditto for case for more than £500 but no more than £1,000 - up £5 to £85

Ditto for case for more than £1,000 but no more than £1,500 - up £8 to £123

Ditto for case for more than £1,500 but no more than £3,000 - up £11 to £181

Ditto for case for more than £3,000 - up £11 to £346

Hearing fee (otherwise called trial fee) for multi-track case in county court or High Court - up £85 to £1,175

The Help with Fees system which can mean no fee or a reduced fee survives. It will benefit you if you are on benefits. If not on benefits but a low income, have a go. The income thresholds for applicants not on benefits will be slightly raised at the same time as the fees go up.

CHILD DISPUTE SCHEME BOLSTERED: £500 on offer towards mediation cost: no means test

FOURTH 'RETURN OF BREAKING LAW' UPDATE

I looked at alternatives to court proceedings at chapter 09 of my book. One of the alternatives is mediation. That's the process by which somebody independent who has been trained in getting parties at war to settle disputes will apply their skills to hostilities between you and your opponent. Those skills sometimes extend to the connection together of the parties' heads until peace prevails. This is sometimes known as head bashing. 

One type of mediation covered by my book is the pilot scheme set up by the government to pay £500 towards the costs of a mediator assisting in couples reaching an agreement over a child dispute and to avoid it going to or continuing in court (see https://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/mediation). I predicted that if the scheme was initially successful then more money would be added to the £1m made available to issue vouchers to cover this £500 a dispute. 

It's happened. Yesterday 28 August 2021, the government announced the investment of a further £800,000 in the scheme which is sourced through a mediator conducting the information programme in which anyone wishing to take a child dispute to court must generally participate  before the case can be started.

The scheme does not involve a means test. It's open to millionaires.

'LAW WATCH' FREE VIDEOS FROM AUTHOR OF 'RETURN OF BREAKING LAW'

Don't waste your time ordering a box set. You can see my mug - no judicial wig as I have a bit of my own hair - in a series of videos packed with legal tips on a wide variety of legal topics. They are free to watch and are aimed at helping you win your case, whether you already have a lawyer acting for you or are going it alone as a litigant in person. And if they tempt you into buying my latest book for much, much more information, then that would help me with my increased car insurance premium. The book is available from the usual places which do not specialise in pornography and I see that the publishers have a special offer going till the end of next month. Actually, I am tempted to take advantage of it myself!

The first video is about financial remedy applications which determine who gets what of a lot, a little or nothing, when a relationship breaks up. Take a look. Of course, when you've watched it remember to subscribe so you know when I'm next on screen.  

Council repossessions in England: new notice form required for secure tenancies

THIRD 'RETURN OF BREAKING LAW' UPDATE 

'At War With Your Home Landlord is chapter 67 of my book. You should get to it by around this time next month but only if you read fast and keep off the bottle. Among a multitude of topics, it covers the procedure your social landlord should follow if they want you out. If you rent from a council  one of their own properties then the probability - but by no means the certainty - is that your tenancy is a 'secure tenancy'. The paperwork will make it clear whether or not this is so.

And, if it is a secure tenancy and the council want you out, there is an important change. The prescribed form of notice  - effectively, a notice to quit which is actually called a notice seeking possession - the council must give you and which must run out  before they can start county court possession proceedings in England, has changed. The new form is introduced by the Secure Tenancies (Notices) (Amendment) and Suspension (Coronavirus) (England) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/946) which title you need not learn off by heart and repeat to me before bedtime. It revises the information about the length of the notice period you should currently be given.

The revised notice should be used by the council for any notice which is given on or after 24 August 2021 (and until it is revised again). Since the regulations which changed the form were not made until 19 August 2021 and since some government websites are still referring to the old form of notice, it is very likely that any notice you have had after 23 August 2021 or you may receive in the near future, will be in the wrong from. In that event, it may well be legally ineffective and you might wish to take that point at some stage when communicating with the council or in a defence to the proceedings which may follow. A bit more time which would result from the council having to give you a fresh notice in the correct from, might well be useful to you. 

 

MASTERCARD COLLECTIVE CLAIM BY WALTER MERRICKS: latest hearing result

SECOND 'RETURN OF BREAKING LAW' UPDATE

Chapter 41 of my latest book covered the collective claim against Mastercard now put at £15 billion - yes, I did say £15 billion- on behalf of 46 million UK customers who between 1992 and 2008 paid more for their goods and services as a result of an unlawful Mastercard practice. That practice is said to have put up the price of those goods or services for the 46 million whether or not they  - and this could be you or even little me -actually used a Mastercard credit or debit card on any transacation.  

The contested claim failed before the Competition Appeal Tribunal. But the failure was reversed by the Court of Appeal whose reversal was backed by the Supreme Court which sent the claim back to the Tribunal to reconsider it. That it has now done and in a judgment published today 18 August 2021 the Tribunal has changed its mind and has made a collective proceedings order  - the first ever - which will allow the claim to go ahead. An attempt to include deceased persons among the claimants was unsuccessful. 

Watch this space for more details of how the claim will proceed and whether you can expect a payout for a bottle of champagne (or a case) or a glass of water and when.