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Marriage Discrimination
One of the least often claimed grounds of discrimination is marriage and civil partnership. Prejudice against married people is hardly widespread and there are few circumstances in which an employer might treat an employee less favourably because they were married....
Transfer of Undertakings – changing contracts
The Transfer of Undertakings Regulations (known as TUPE) provide that an employee’s terms and conditions cannot be changed because of the transfer of their employment from one employer to another. It has been argued in the past that this provision only applies to...
Right to Work
An employer must be careful to avoid employing someone who does not have the right to work in the UK. Doing so knowingly is a criminal offence and inadvertently employing someone who is working illegally can lead to a civil penalty of up to £20,000 for an employer who...
Unfair dismissal – gross misconduct
In considering a wrongful dismissal claim, the Tribunal needs to decide whether or not the employee is guilty of gross misconduct. When it comes to unfair dismissal that is precisely what the Tribunal should not do – at least until it comes to assess compensation. It...
Wrongful dismissal
An employee dismissed without notice will often claim both unfair and wrongful dismissal. These are two distinct claims. Unfair dismissal is concerned with the reasonableness of the employer’s decision to dismiss the employee. Wrongful dismissal is a contractual claim...
Redundancy
It is now common practice for employers to select employees for redundancy based on their performance at an interview. Often this process appears to be similar to a recruitment exercise, with the employer selecting those who will be offered a place in the new...
Flexible Furlough Scheme
From this month the new Flexible Furlough Scheme is in operation. Under the old scheme an employee had to be furloughed for at least 21 days and could perform no work in that time. The new scheme allows for a furlough of any period and for employees to work part-time....
A partial release from lockdown?
On Sunday Boris Johnson announced a partial return to work for some workers and on Monday a little more detailed was provided but what does this mean in practice? Well it is quite clear that people who can work from home should still do so for the foreseeable future....
Coronavirus – The Employment Law Implications
We are all reeling from the shock of the Coronavirus pandemic but what has changed and what do we know now? Sick Pay The Government has changed the rules on statutory sick pay ("SSP") during the Coronavirus outbreak to entitle those who are self isolating and those...
Disability discrimination
To satisfy the definition of 'disabled' under the Equality Act 2010, an employee must show that they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term effect on their ability to do day to day things. To be long term, the impairment must have...
Shared parental pay
You may remember the Court of Appeal decision in Chief Constable of Leicestershire v Hextall last year. The Court of Appeal decided that it was not discriminatory to pay men on shared parental leave less than women on maternity leave. The special treatment women...
Age discrimination – compulsory retirement
An employer must be able to justify any compulsory retirement age (CRA) by showing it is a proportionate way of achieving a legitimate business aim. An employment tribunal will look at why the CRA is necessary and appropriate, whether there is any alternative to the...
Whistleblowing
Workers are protected from being treated badly by their employer because they have made protected disclosures about malpractice. In Jesudason v Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, the Court of Appeal has looked at whether an employer's attempts to set the...