Clearly a quiet week over at Acas Towers, judging by all the detailed advice and reasoned analysis which doesn’t feature in its new two-page guidance note on long Covid (also referred to in the guidance as “long-tail Covid”, which is the same but with more feathers). The main thrust of the guidance is notionally to … Continue Reading
So said German lithographer Herm Albright in a rare moment’s cynicism, but of course if you really want to get on your colleagues’ nerves, a hostile or negative attitude is far more to be commended. So here is a question arising from a matter on which we were recently instructed. Client’s employee has a persistently … Continue Reading
In the employment world, some legislative ideas just don’t work. Some have promise initially but don’t survive their first encounter with the real world – take a look at 2001’s Dignity at Work Bill, for example, to all outward appearances a brilliant spoof of a real piece of legislation but clearly written by someone with … Continue Reading
Here is an interesting little question about how far an employer needs to formalise steps taken to accommodate an employee’s disability. Mr Brangwyn went to work for South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust in 2008 as Occupational Therapy Technician. This was not directly a medical role but did involve some time escorting patients around the building … Continue Reading
The duty on a UK employer to make reasonable adjustments applies only when it knows or ought to know about an employee’s disability. Establishing actual knowledge is easy enough, but what about constructive awareness, where the employer obviously does not know but is nonetheless being expected to act as if it did? In Gallop -v- … Continue Reading
Ruled upon by the EAT at the end of last year, Coffey marks a significant but ultimately unsurprising precedent in terms of perceived disability cases in the UK. The case is the first directly to address the issue of perceived disability discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 and confirms that an employer cannot treat an … Continue Reading
Rochford – v – WNS Global Services is a small (9 page) but perfectly formed UK Court of Appeal decision around when you can stand on your principles in the face of discrimination by your employer and when it just gets you sacked. Mr Rochford had been absent for an extended time with a bad … Continue Reading
According to ACAS, “at least one in four of us will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in our lives”. A scary statistic, but scarier still is the prospect that this creates an annual cost for UK employers of £30 billion from both absences and “presenteeism” (i.e. turning up for work when … Continue Reading
This post was prepared with the kind assistance of Andy Bell, Deputy Chief Executive of the Centre for Mental Health, a charity dedicated to changing the lives of people with mental health problems by improving support and bringing about fairer policies. Many employers have experience of dealing with prolonged, costly and challenging sickness absences of … Continue Reading
Hot on the heels of our post on indirect discrimination in employee tests for promotion comes another decision posing similar challenges for employers. Government Legal Service –v- Brookes concerned the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) which forms part of the recruitment process for lawyers wanting to join the Service. Ms Brookes told the GLS in advance that … Continue Reading
Fans of the unnecessary medicalisation of management issues in the workplace will be sadly disappointed by a new Employment Appeal Tribunal decision at the end of December. For everyone else, Herry – v – Dudley MBC represents a very sensible and timely reminder of where the line lies between being disabled on the one hand … Continue Reading
When you sign up a Settlement Agreement with an ex-employee you think that’s the end of the matter, right? Clearly that is the general intention, but we already know that even the most procedurally prim and proper settlement agreement can be undone by evidence that it was entered into by fraud or misrepresentation and now … Continue Reading
Williams, Turner and Stoker -v- The Whitbread Beer Company back in 1995 is one of my favourite Tribunal cases, the sad story of an employer trying to do something nice for its staff and being roundly punished for it. Whitbreads ran a staff seminar and laid on a free bar afterwards. As the evening wore … Continue Reading
UK employers take note – the Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently ruled that an employer was obliged to continue paying a disabled employee his full salary even though he had been redeployed into a less well paid role because he could no longer carry out his normal duties as a result of his disability. Such … Continue Reading
When you work late in the office, why? Because it will make the following day that bit less fraught? Because you do not want to be seen as a clock-watcher? Because you think it will help your bonus or job security? Because you believe it is the right thing to do for the good of … Continue Reading
Does really just anything count as a philosophical belief these days? An impression you could reasonably take away from the headlines in the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision in Harron –v- Chief Constable of Dorset Police last week but happily not one completely borne out by closer reading. Mr Harron considered himself to have been discriminated … Continue Reading
Do you ever think that your line managers are making such a hash of a grievance or disciplinary process that it would be easier to do it yourself? Do you watch in horror as they stumble blindly but unerringly towards what is clearly the wrong decision? Are you tempted to give them a nudge in … Continue Reading
In almost every TUPE transfer, whether a business sale or a service provision change (SPC), you come eventually to the chap receiving permanent health insurance benefits. The transferor has no need for him any longer and the transferee has no wish to bump up its own PHI premiums for someone who is seemingly never going … Continue Reading
If as an Employment Tribunal you are not satisfied by the evidence which the parties have put before you, are you entitled to go off and get some more of your own? This rather unusual question was considered by the Employment Appeal Tribunal last month in East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust –v- Sanders. … Continue Reading
As the number of pregnancy discrimination lawsuits has increased, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), for the first time in over thirty years, issued a comprehensive guidance update on pregnancy discrimination last month. The EEOC’s guidance serves to clarify its position on a wide range of topics related to pregnancy discrimination as enforced under the … Continue Reading
In the US, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) employers are required to provide qualified individuals who have a disability with a reasonable accommodation absent an undue hardship. Whether working from home is a reasonable accommodation is a fact intensive analysis that should be conducted for each circumstance. However, last week, the Sixth Circuit … Continue Reading
Although the ADA does not generally cover temporary impairments as disabilities under the law, the Fourth Circuit is the first Court of Appeals to declare that a temporary impairment can be severe enough to be a disability under the law. In Summers v. Altarum Institute Corporation [pdf], the court of appeals reversed the trial court’s dismissal … Continue Reading
Having survived almost exclusively on mince-pies and red wine over the festive period, I waddled into January with that familiar feeling of gluttony and self-loathing. The only saving grace is that I am not alone – I had been in the office no more than five minutes today when conversations about Christmas swiftly turned to … Continue Reading
Your employee is sick a lot, mostly stress and related issues. Keen to respect your statutory obligations if you have any, you repeatedly ask your external Occupational Health provider if this means he is disabled. You are repeatedly told that he is not, though without any particular depth of enquiry on your part and without … Continue Reading
