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Sickness absence
The Office for National Statistics has published its review of sickness absence rates in 2021. Unsurprisingly, in the middle of a pandemic, 2021 saw the highest rate of sickness absence in a decade. The UK’s sickness absence rate rose from a record low of 1.8% in 2020...
Menstrual leave
UK charities are asking the government to bring in paid leave for women who have to take time off work due to painful periods. This cry has been prompted by the actions of our continental cousin, Spain, where draft legislation has been approved which will allow...
Gender neutral job adverts
Are your job advertisements putting off potential recruits? Chatter Communications, an employee brand agency, recently conducted a survey of 230 job adverts on the websites of FTSE 100 companies and analysed the findings. The survey found that only 5 per cent of job...
Discrimination on grounds of baldness
A harasses B if they engages in unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic (such as race or sex) that has the purpose or effect of violating B’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. A...
Disability and long Covid
The Office for National Statistics has reported that 1.2 million people in the UK are suffering from long Covid, prolonged symptoms that impact their ability to do day to day things. Long Covid is a term used for people who experience symptoms for 4 weeks or longer,...
Exclusivity clauses
Back in 2015, the government banned the use of exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts. Clauses that stop a zero-hours contract worker from working for another business, or which say that the worker cannot work for anyone else without the employer’s consent, are...
Discrimination – victimisation
A victimises B if A subjects B to a detriment - treats them badly - because B has done a ‘protected act’. Protected acts can include making allegations of discrimination or bringing a discrimination claim. Even if the discrimination allegation itself turns out to be...
Acas early conciliation
If an employee wants to bring an employment tribunal claim, they must first go through Acas early conciliation (Acas EC) and wait to receive a certificate. The certificate number must then be listed on the form. The claim must be rejected if Acas EC has not been...
Discrimination and unfair dismissal
Many employment tribunal claims involve claims for both unfair dismissal and discrimination. They therefore involve the application of different legal tests to the same set of facts. Capability dismissals in particular lend themselves to claims that there has been...
Covid-19 and unfair dismissal
Section 100(1)(d) and (e) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 provides employees with protection from dismissal if they exercise their right to leave the workplace or refuse to return to it, or take other steps to protect themselves, if they reasonably believe there is...
Commuting upstairs?
The Government’s Living with Covid strategy removed one of the final hurdles towards a return to full-time office working, but many are expected to continue working from home under the new regime. The potential of reduced property costs combined with positive feedback...
P&O Ferries mass redundancies – what is the legal view ?
Last week it was announced that P&O Ferries LTD had made mass redundancies across their crewing team, leaving 800 employees without work. This announcement was made by live video call to all 800 individuals, with no apparent consultation process having been...
Whistleblowing and confidential documents
Employees might be tempted to squirrel away paperwork before they leave employment in order to feather the nest of any potential legal claims relating to that employment especially if they are concerned that the documents will not be disclosed in future proceedings....