It is a normal principle of English employment law that clear notice of termination, once given, cannot be retracted without the consent of the other party. The few cases there are on the point relate mostly to employees resigning in a temper or when their judgement is significantly and visibly impaired through illness or drink, … Continue Reading
I love this next question from our webinar last month. It goes right to the heart of what a grievance is about – obtaining redress where due – and raises some very interesting issues as to the extent of the employee’s own obligations to help in that process. 8. If someone refuses a mediation to … Continue Reading
So here we are all again and, says the Government’s latest guidance, able to leave home to work only where it is “unreasonable for you to do your job from home“. This is the umpteenth permutation of the same underlying message about working from home if you can, and was almost certainly meant to say … Continue Reading
What a difference a week makes. By now, businesses, offices and families all across the United Kingdom are coming to terms with the recommendation that (where possible) people self-isolate as the UK Government seeks to “spread the peak” of the Coronavirus pandemic. Ignoring the seismic impact this has had upon businesses and industries, there is … 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
I gave a talk last week on constructive knowledge of disability, i.e. the point where the employer didn’t actually know its employee was disabled, but is nonetheless held liable because on the facts it ought to have done.… Continue Reading
You are hearing the appeal of an employee with less than two years’ service dismissed on the grounds of admitted poor conduct. What can possibly go wrong? Certainly not the seeming afterthought on the employee’s part, not mentioned at the dismissal stage, that her conduct might in part be explained by a depressive condition of … Continue Reading
Last week it would have been difficult to miss the statistics: mental health affects 1 in 4 of us. In reality, it affects far more indirectly. Many people will have been affected by the mental health of a colleague, a friend or a family member. In addition, anyone with experience of mental health problems will … Continue Reading
Following our previous blogs on the Stephenson/Farmer report, this post looks at some more of the hard facts from the report associated with mental health conditions in the workplace and their causes. First of all, it should be noted that “mental health at work” encompasses not only problems caused by or at work, despite what … Continue Reading
As we mentioned in our previous blog, the Farmer/ Stephenson “Thriving at Work” Report has made a number of recommendations as to steps that businesses, the public sector and the Government can take to increase mental health and wellbeing within the workplace, with the aim not only of increasing the standard of mental health but … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs presents a webinar to discuss key labour and employment hot topics affecting UK employers. On 28 June 2017 at 4.00 p.m. BST (UK) (5.00 p.m. CEST, 11.00 a.m. EDT, 8.00 a.m. PDT) David Whincup, Annabel Mace and Bryn Doyle will focus on: Business Immigration – An update on recent changes plus the … 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
As you may have noticed, today is the fourth annual “Time to Talk” day. The purpose of the Time to Talk day is to seek to break down the stigma of mental health issues and spark conversations, not only to aid recovery but also to help people with their personal and professional relationships and to … 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
It is a common issue facing employers; you want to start or take next steps with a grievance or disciplinary investigation. To do the right thing you want to meet with the employee to discuss your concerns but the worker is on sick leave or goes sick, often citing work-related stress. Can you contact the … Continue Reading
An interesting new defence to discriminatory harassment claims has been trialled this month by none other than former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone. Our Ken was recently appointed to a senior role in Labour’s Defence Review. Objections were heard from a number of quarters including Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones on the seemingly not unreasonable grounds … Continue Reading
Today is National Stress Awareness Day in the United Kingdom. This is not to be confused with National Stress Awareness Day in the United States (16th April), or indeed National Stress Awareness Month (also in the US and also April). Quite why April is more stressful in the US and November is more stressful in … Continue Reading
Today is National Stress Awareness Day, though another long and difficult journey on Thameslink this morning means that actually I am quite stress–aware enough already, thank you for asking. This is not another of those pieces about the business case for countering sources of stress in your workplace. That is too obvious to bear repetition. … Continue Reading
Working in Big Law is all sharp haircuts, perfect teeth and snappy rejoinders – at least that is the picture presented by the TV show, Suits. I must confess to this as a guilty pleasure for my family as we watch the weekly shenanigans of Harvey, Jessica, Mike, Louis, Rachel and Donna. It would seem … Continue Reading
No job within the Square Mile is immune from its own stresses or strains. As the City of London Corporation’s Business Healthy blog notes (https://www.businesshealthy.org/blog/), the recent economic climate has exacerbated these through the invariable requirement that businesses reduce their cost base without adversely affecting their profits. Undoubtedly, this drive to do more with less … Continue Reading
Ruby Wax is a well-known and respected campaigner for mental health issues. Imagine my surprise, therefore, to open my Times Online (behind a paywall) this week to the headline “Don’t tell your boss if you’re mentally ill, Ruby Wax advises“. I was sure that this was the Times Online taking a quotation out of context to … Continue Reading
This is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK, so here are two brief and totally unrelated perspectives on mental health issues in the workplace. First, a cautionary note for employers in relation to Employment Tribunal proceedings brought by sufferers of serious mental health issues. In Higgins – v – Home Office decided last week, … Continue Reading
In the first two parts of this series (part 1, part 2) we looked at how the Courts still regard the 2002 judgment in Hatton –v- Sutherland as the definitive statement on the law for liability for stress-induced psychiatric injury in the workplace. However, although still commanding respect in relation to breach of duty and … Continue Reading
In Part 1 of this piece https://www.employmentlawworldview.com/uk-high-court-gives-useful-recap-on-liability-for-stress-induced-psychiatric-illness-in-the-workplace-part-1/ we considered the requirement of foreseeability as a condition of establishing an employer’s liability for stress-related psychiatric harm. Here we look at the other main ingredient, a breach of duty by the employer. It is not enough that an employee’s illness is as a matter of medical fact … Continue Reading
