The UK government published a consultation paper on making flexible working the default. Possible changes to the current framework include removing the service requirement for making a request, allowing more than one request...more
In Gwynedd Council v Barratt the UK Court of Appeal confirmed that a redundancy dismissal will not be unfair solely because an employer has not offered an employee a right to appeal. However, failing to offer an appeal...more
The UK government has published its national disability strategy, which is designed to help reduce the disability employment gap and ensure that disability is not a barrier to someone’s ability to reach their full potential....more
The UK government’s response to the 2019 consultation on sexual harassment in the workplace confirms that it will introduce a legal duty on employers to protect workers from harassment, re-introduce protection against...more
The UK Supreme Court decision in Royal Mail Group Ltd v Efobi confirms that employees must still prove facts from which a tribunal could draw an inference of discrimination before their claim can proceed, despite a change of...more
7/28/2021
/ Burden of Proof ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equality Act ,
Evidence ,
International Labor Laws ,
Race Discrimination ,
UK ,
UK Employment Appeal Tribunal ,
UK Supreme Court
An employee will succeed with an indirect sex discrimination claim if she can show that her employer applied a provision, criterion or practice (PCP) that put women (including the employee) at a disadvantage when compared...more
A tale in two parts - COVID-19 and health and safety dismissals There have been more employment tribunal decisions examining when a COVID-19 related dismissal will be automatically unfair for health and safety reasons. One...more
If not now then when? Tribunal should have identified when jurisdiction established -
An employment tribunal only has jurisdiction to hear claims under the Employment Rights Act 1996 and Equality Act 2010 if the claimant...more
Narrow escape - limited waiver of privilege decision upheld In Watson v Hilary Meredith Solicitors Ltd the EAT reaffirmed the correct approach to waiver of privilege. A tribunal was entitled to find that a respondent had...more
Ethnicity pay gap reporting is currently voluntary in the UK. The Government ran a consultation for employers about ethnicity pay gap reporting that ended in January 2019, and on 9 February 2021, the Women and Equalities...more
First tribunal guidance on "serious and imminent" danger in context of COVID-19 -
In Rodgers v Leeds Laser Cutting Ltd the Employment Tribunal considered whether an employee had been unfairly dismissed for refusing to attend...more
4/26/2021
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
International Labor Laws ,
UK ,
Unfair Dismissal ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Workplace Safety
Cashiered – supermarket staff succeed in Supreme Court -
To bring an equal pay claim, an employee has to point to a comparator of the opposite sex doing like work, work rated as equivalent or work of equal value. If the...more
4/12/2021
/ Adoption ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Holiday Pay ,
International Labor Laws ,
Parental Leave ,
Sex Discrimination ,
UK ,
UK Employment Appeal Tribunal ,
Wage and Hour
The roll-out of vaccinations against Covid-19 is gathering pace in the UK and on the current timetable all adults will have been offered a first vaccine by the end of July....more
3/30/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Infectious Diseases ,
UK ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
Split the difference - CJEU decision on fragmentation applies to service provision changes -
When a contract is retendered, services that were originally provided by a single contractor may be divided between two or more...more
Employment newsletter In this weeks issue: Beating around the bush – disclosure did not have to identify legal obligation Gone fishing – disclosure in equal pay claims All change – tribunal limits and pay gap reporting ...more
Although the government’s Job Retention Scheme (JRS) was originally expected to close on 31 October 2020, the government has extended it on several occasions. Following the Budget on 3 March 2021 it is now clear that the...more
Timed out – reasonable steps defence fails because training stable -
An employer can defend a discrimination claim under the Equality Act if it has taken all reasonable steps to prevent employees from committing acts of...more
2/22/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Economic Impact Analysis ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equality Act ,
Harassment ,
Infectious Diseases ,
International Labor Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
Race Discrimination ,
UK ,
UK Employment Appeal Tribunal ,
Wage and Hour
Tell it like it is – email referring to potentially discriminatory conduct not a protected act -
In Chalmers v Airpoint Ltd the EAT in Scotland found that an employee had not done a protected act for the purposes of a...more
See no evil – new employer breached equitable duty of confidence - In Travel Counsellors Ltd v Trailfinders Ltd, the Court of Appeal upheld a decision that Travel Counsellors was in breach of an equitable duty of confidence...more
Read all about it – agency worker had right to be informed about vacancies, not to apply for them -
It is perhaps surprising that nearly ten years after the Agency Workers Regulations (the Regulations) came into force, the...more
This note addresses some of employers' key questions about their obligations to employees when dealing with the continuing COVID-19 outbreak. It deals with the position in England. The governments in Scotland, Wales and...more
Although the government’s Job Retention Scheme (JRS) was originally expected to close on 31 October 2020, the government subsequently decided to extend it, initially to the end of March and then to the end of April 2021 (the...more
There has been a lengthy debate in the courts about the extent to which an employer can rely on cost considerations when seeking to justify a provision, criteria or practice that is potentially indirectly discriminatory. In...more
Although the government’s Job Retention Scheme (JRS) was initially expected to close on 31 October 2020, on 5 November 2020 the government announced that it would remain in place in some form until the end of March 2021 (the...more
Tell me more – ICO publishes detailed subject access guidance -
The ICO has published detailed guidance for handling subject access requests. This is relevant to employers responding to subject access requests from...more
11/5/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
Data Protection ,
EU ,
Furloughs ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) ,
International Labor Laws ,
Job Retention Schemes ,
Personal Data ,
Subject Access Request (SAR) ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
Withdrawal Agreement