As a rule, an employer will be liable for the discriminatory acts of its employees towards each other unless it has taken all reasonable steps to prevent them doing that sort of thing (section 109(4) Equality Act, often known as the “statutory defence”). Allay (UK) Limited –v- Gehlen is one of really not very many … Continue Reading
It is easy to dismiss some EAT decisions as a storm in a teacup, legally-speaking, all very traumatic for those bobbing about in them, but of little significance to the wider world of employment law or practice. Steer – v – Stormsure Limited earlier this month is not one of those decisions. It has the … Continue Reading
All the smart money is on 2021 to see an increased number of grievances and Employment Tribunal claims as the pandemic support regime winds down. Therefore this is probably a good moment to look at the practical lessons to be taken from Cole – v – Elders Voice in the Employment Appeal Tribunal last month … Continue Reading
Time to answer another interesting question which came up at our Managing Working Parents webinar a couple of weeks ago: Where the employee is unable to come into work for childcare reasons, what are my duties to provide him with work suitable to be done from home? This was a question which we might have … Continue Reading
Back in March we posted here a piece about dismissing to protect the employer’s corporate reputation. In that case the employer made a very difficult choice between the claimed (ultimately, actual) innocence of the employee and the harm which continuing to employ him might do if he turned out to be guilty. On the facts, … Continue Reading
“Loss of trust and confidence” is often pleaded as a basis for a fair dismissal, but rarely successfully. Employment Tribunals are astute to employers using it as a short cut to address performance or conduct issues without going through a proper procedure. After all, a dismissal without a fair procedure is going to be unfair … Continue Reading
On top of the flexible working rules (see Parts 1-3), another piece of existing law likely to get a pandemic-related dusting-off in the months to come is our old friend whistleblowing. If you face what is otherwise a fairly clear redundancy situation because Covid-19 has gutted your employer’s market, what better way of upping the … Continue Reading
As soon as your employee announces that he is suffering from a mental health condition, there is a temptation on the part of both employer and employee to assume that he is thereby necessarily disabled under the Equality Act and so that with immediate effect he is entitled to all the protections available under it. … Continue Reading
You have tried to counsel, to mediate and to make every adjustment you possibly can, but in the end you have run into a single insurmountable fact about your employee with the attitude – you just can’t bear him any longer. He is the dragging anchor of your otherwise happy little ship and must be … Continue Reading
Exploring the difference between why you do something and why it happens sounds like one of those abstract A-level Philosophy questions about whether you are a prince dreaming you are a butterfly or the other way around, but without the ability to ask whether anyone cares anyway. However, the question is also key to determining … Continue Reading
Regulation 7(1) of TUPE usually makes a dismissal automatically unfair if it is for a reason connected with the business transfer. But what if the reason for the dismissal is actually good old personal dislike and the transfer is just the context in which it surfaced?… 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
Statutory construction can be a bit like nuclear fusion – you take an atom of something relatively ordinary and then subject it to such pressure that it explodes into a million flaming pieces and lays waste to your entire afternoon. Employment Tribunals and Courts do the same to words, taking perfectly mundane sentences and phrases … Continue Reading
Rumbling around at the less well-publicised end of the holiday pay saga is the question of just how far back such claims can go. Changes to the Employment Rights Act 1996 limited this to two years for claims brought after 1 July 2015, but thanks to Bear Scotland Limited, the actual exposure may be very … Continue Reading
After the gestation period of an elephant, the Government Review of the impact of the fees for Employment Tribunal cases finally emerged squalling into the daylight earlier this month. Weighing in at a healthy 100 pages and with a foreword by proud father Justice Minister Sir Oliver Heald, the Review takes a detailed look at … Continue Reading
Long-time Employment Tribunal practitioners will recall more or less fondly the days when every so often the Judge would suddenly send the parties out of the room mid-hearing and then lean towards one of the representatives and say incredulously “Come on, really?”. When it was said to the other side, that was absolutely the Overriding … 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
All the lawyers are saying that Brexit won’t make any difference to English employment law (and in terms of black and white statute law that is probably true) but here is one of those very few cases which might genuinely have gone the other way if it had been brought after the UK leaves the … Continue Reading
Are you off to the Employment Tribunal for the first time soon and don’t know what to wear? Scared of looking a fool under cross-examination? Not sure what to call the Employment Judge? Is it really like Suits? Or do you just need to educate and reassure jittery line management witnesses who have now realised … Continue Reading
Proponents of workplace mediation often stress its confidential and voluntary nature and the ability to fail to agree without there necessarily being any adverse consequences. It is all about listening and rapport and trust, say those commentaries, making the whole process sound as cuddly and unthreatening as your favourite puppy. In fact, there are a … Continue Reading
So said Queen Elizabeth I in a very early glimpse into English Civil Court proceedings. Should we therefore be heartened by a possible sign of things to come in the modern employment world, thanks to Lord Justice Briggs earlier this week? Addressing the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators on 26 September, Briggs LJ told of his … Continue Reading
Protecting your enhanced severance scheme Some employers pay only the statutory minimum entitlement on a redundancy dismissal, but others recognise that redundancy is a no-fault reason for termination and try to do something to sweeten an otherwise bitter pill. Maybe this is no more than paying in lieu of notice without deduction of tax (for … Continue Reading
Take good notes of consultation meetings This may sound trite, but it is amazing how often this is overlooked. You need good notes if you are going to follow-up on any points after the meeting, if the employee subsequently challenges anything that was said, or if the matter ends up in the Employment Tribunal; so … Continue Reading
Those few of our readers who are inexplicably not committed followers of the House of Commons Justice Committee have missed a little cracker this week with the issue of its report on Court and Tribunal fees. As everyone in the business knows, the introduction of fees in 2013 knocked the bottom out of Employment Tribunal … Continue Reading
