Archive for the: Employment category

A Supreme Court decision in the case of R (on the application of Unison) v Lord Chancellor has declared that the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 (Fees Order), which imposes fees for employment tribunals, to be unlawful and prohibitive as it prevents access to justice. The Fees Order was found to be unlawful under both domestic and EU law. It has been called a landmark ruling and is perhaps one of the most important judgements in employment law in the last 50 years.

As a result of the ruling, from 26^th July 2017 tribunal fees cease to...

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) has published two reports looking at how successfully the implementation of the new rules surrounding national living wage and national minimum wage has been.

The first report, called National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage, provides information on the subjects of compliance and enforcement. The report highlights that, following the implementation of the National Living Wage, 360,000 workers received less than the National Minimum Wage.

In order to resolve this and encourage efficient enforcement, HMRC resources were increased by £7 million – from £13 million to £20 million – for the year 2016/2017,...

It has been announced by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions that six million individuals in the UK will be forced to wait a year longer than anticipated to receive their state pension.

The change, which affects men and women born between 6 April 1970 and 5 April 1978, follows recommendations made in the Cridland Report – an independent review of State Pension arrangements after 2028 carried out by John Cridland CBE.

The government anticipate that the changes will save the taxpayer £74 billion by 2045/2046, and while it was initially due to...

Following the news this week, where the BBC released a list of their highest paid male and female earners, large companies will be considering the reputational impact the release of such information will have on their businesses.

The Gender Pay Gap Regulations 2017, mean employers in the private, public and voluntary sector with 250 or more employees will be required to publish their “gender pay gap” by April 2018. 

Companies will have to publish a number of calculations to both their website and a government website, which include:

1. average gender pay gap as a mean and median average;
2. average bonus gender pay gap...

Case Report - Beatt v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 401

Background:

In this case the Court of Appeal held that in a case concerning a whistleblowing dismissal, it does not matter if the employer genuinely believed that a disclosure was not protected. If the disclosure satisfies the objective test set out in Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996, then it is a protected disclosure. To recap, the test relating to a protected disclosure (in brief) is as follows:

1. It must be a qualifying disclosure. In order to be qualifying, the employee must have the reasonable...

Multiple Choice Assessment taken by Applicant with Aspergers Subjected Her to Indirect Disability Discrimination

In the recent ruling, Government Legal Services v Brookes UKEAT/0302/16, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) upheld the decision of an Employment Tribunal that requiring a job applicant with Aspergers to take a multiple choice test as part of the recruitment process amounted to indirect discrimination.

The Facts

Ms Brookes applied for a position with the Government Legal Service (GLS) whose jobs are highly sought after and whose recruitment is notoriously competitive. Applicants are required to complete and pass a multiple choice situational judgement test in order to...

According to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), employers can ban the wearing of any “political, philosophical or religious sign” including headscarves, without it being direct discrimination.

The ECJ has highlighted that so long as the ban is based on internal company policies outlining that all employees must dress neutrally, it will be acceptable for employers to ask that staff refrain from wearing clothing of a religious nature.  

Such ban must not however, be based on “subjective considerations” alone, for example, the wishes of a customer or supplier.

The ruling comes following a claim made by Samira Achbita - a receptionist who...

In order for a Claimant to “institute relevant proceedings” (i.e a claim to the employment tribunal), the prospective claimant must comply with the duty to commence Acas Early Conciliation. In such cases, the limitation date is extended to take into account the period of conciliation. The primary limitation time period in order to bring a claim in a tribunal is three months less one day from the date of dismissal.

Normally, the period is extended by the time between the day the prospective claimant contacts Acas, (or when their EC form is received by ACAS), and the day in which the...

This case concerned the timing of contractual notice. An employment contract may contain an express clause which stipulates when notice under a contract is deemed to have been served and specifying when such notice is deemed effective. The case in question was Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood [2017].

In this case, the notification of notice being served was important as it will have effected the pension payments Ms Haywood received after having been made redundant. Ms Haywood was out of the country on holiday when the employer sent notice of termination for redundancy via post.  The letter was...