At this month's Employment Law Breakfast Briefing, hosted by Anne Corder Recruitment and Hegarty LLP Solicitors, delegates were brought up to date with a raft of changes.

One of the most far-reaching discussed was a well-publicised case brought under the Disability Discrimination Act by a worker at a firm of lawyers who argued she had been subjected to unfair treatment on the grounds that she had a disabled son.

It was accepted that anyone bringing a case under the 1995 Act had, by definition, to be disabled. But the European Court of Justice ruled that the directive must be extended to those discriminated against by association with a disabled person. As a result, all of us, as employers, ensure staff who have disabled family members or friends are not discriminated against.

Another issue to be aware of is the rolling changes to holiday entitlement, with the concluding change set to come into force next April.

From then, workers will have the right to 5.6 weeks annual holiday, or 28 days (pro rata for part time workers) – this includes bank holidays.

By using industry and government web- sites, being involved with forums and reading trade magazines, remaining informed should be relatively simple. It's also important that information is disseminated among HR staff, managers and, of course, employees.