After a fairly quiet summer period, there were developments on several fronts in October. The new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment became law, although is not yet in force. The Supreme Court...more
Parliament returned from its summer recess in September, allowing proposals on preventing sexual harassment to progress and the right to request a more predictable contract to become law. Angela Rayner’s speech to the TUC...more
We typically expect employment law reform to move slowly during the summer holiday period, but it seems that progress has been possible this year (perhaps without the distraction of consistently good weather in the UK). In...more
In Ponticelli Ltd v Gallagher, the Court of Session in Scotland decided that a share incentive plan transferred under TUPE. Even though the employee’s right to participate was not contained in his contract of employment, it...more
The UK ICO has provided guidance for employers on responding to employee subject access requests. Although much of the content reflects existing guidance, it deals specifically with issues such as requests made in the context...more
The government has announced that it will not repeal most retained EU law at the end of the year as originally planned. However, it is planning to use Brexit-related freedoms to amend some aspects of the Working Time...more
The Equality Act permits some forms of positive action to address disadvantage, different needs or low participation rates amongst groups sharing a protected characteristic. The UK government has published new guidance to...more
In March 2022, the UK government confirmed that it would not require employers to report their ethnicity pay gaps because it was unwilling to impose new business burdens. However, it wanted to encourage reporting and...more
In March 2021, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced that it would review the UK’s whistleblowing framework but did not give a timescale for the exercise. BEIS’ successor, the Department...more
The UK government has responded to last year’s consultation on making flexible working the default. The response confirms that the right to request flexible working will be available to all employees, regardless of their...more
In Hilaire v Luton Borough Council, the UK EAT found that it was not a reasonable adjustment simply to slot a disabled employee into a new organisational structure as part of a redundancy exercise. Although this would have...more
The UK government recently announced its support for two more Private Members’ Bills. These will give employees additional protection against redundancy if they are pregnant or returning from family-related leave and a new...more
In 2021 the UK ICO said that it would revise its Employment Practices Data Protection Code to reflect the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018. It has now published its first topic-specific guidance on employee monitoring in...more
There were a surprising number of employment-related developments in the UK over the traditional summer holiday period. We highlight new employment status guidance, government support for neonatal care leave and fair...more
Dismissing an employee for long term sickness absence could be discrimination arising from a disability if an employer cannot show that the dismissal is objectively justified. The recent UK EAT decision in Department for Work...more
In INEOS Infrastructure Grangemouth Ltd v Jones, the EAT in Scotland found that it was an unlawful inducement relating to collective bargaining for an employer to make a unilateral pay award to employees after pay...more
The long-awaited Employment Bill is no closer to being put before Parliament, after there was no mention of it in the Queen’s Speech. However, in a separate announcement, the UK government has said that it will extend the...more
The UK government has published new guidance on reducing the spread of respiratory infections, including COVID-19, in the workplace. It replaces the earlier working safely during coronavirus guidance, applies to England and...more
The High Court of Justice for England and Wales has prevented an employer from dismissing employees and offering to re-engage them on new terms. As the employer was seeking to remove a right to enhanced pay that it had...more
An English employment tribunal decided that it was fair for an employer to dismiss a care home worker when she refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. However, employers should not assume that the decision means that it...more
When the UK government announced its national disability strategy in July, it promised to consult on whether to make disability reporting mandatory for employers with 250 or more employees. The consultation paper has now been...more
In Walsh v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd the UK EAT found that an employee had not agreed to an extension to the normal three month time frame for deciding flexible working requests when he agreed to attend an appeal...more
Using “fire and rehire” as a way to implement changes to terms and conditions of employment has become increasingly controversial in the UK in recent years. In October the government blocked legislation that would have made...more
In Stuart Delivery Ltd v Augustine, the UK Court of Appeal confirmed that a courier who could offer a time slot he had signed up to cover to other couriers was still obliged to perform work personally. This meant that he was...more
In the government’s response to the carer’s leave consultation it confirms that it will introduce five days’ unpaid carer’s leave per year for employees. This will be a day one right that employees can take on a flexible...more