Archive for the: Employment category

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...

As an employer,  when faced with the task of approving or refusing leave for an employee to attend religious events or festivals,  it can often be difficult to establish what is, and what is not discriminatory.

The recent case of Gareddu v London Underground may carry some level of guidance for employers faced with such decisions.

Gareddu v London Underground

The claimant, G, a practicing Roman Catholic from Sardinia requested extended annual leave of 5 weeks each year in August to attend several consecutive religious festivals with his family in Sardinia.

G’s request for extended annual leave had been approved every year since...

Following the introduction of fees for Employment Tribunal claims, there has been a greater fall in the amount of claims being issued than was ever predicted. In an ongoing consultation, which will end on the 14th March 2017, the Ministry of Justice are proposing to raise the income threshold to £1250 per month, with anyone earning less being entitled to fee remission and potentially being exempt from fees. The proposal is to introduce types of proceedings which will be exempt from fees such as complaints relating to payment from an insolvent employer’s National Insurance Fund. A rise in the amount...

Subject to Parliamentary approval, gender pay reporting legislation looks likely to come into force in April 2017. The legislation will require private and voluntary employers with 250 or more employees (as of 5 April 2017) to publish calculations outlining the pay gap between their male and female employees in an attempt to start to address the gender pay gap. It is expected that the obligation to report will include the public sector by April 2017. Current Office for National Statistics figures show that the current gender pay gap in the UK for full time workers is 9.4%.

It is important to...

London Receptionist, Nicola Thorp, brought a parliamentary petition which gained over 150,000 signatures when she was sent home without pay from her job at Price Waterhouse Coopers for refusing to wear high heels.  She was employed through Portico (an employment agency), which set out some stringent work wear guidelines, including those relating to thickness of hosiery and the shade of nail polish.

Following widespread public outcry, an inquiry was launched by the parliamentary committees for Petitions and for Women and Equalities. The inquiry produced a report entitled High Heels and Workplace Dress Codes (the ‘Report’).

The Report considers the work wear guidelines...

It has been a generally accepted principle that once a warning for misconduct has expired, the employee’s slate should be wiped clean, and it would be unfair for an employer to take expired warnings into account when deciding to dismiss the employee.

However, in the recent case of Stratford v Auto Trail VR Ltd the Employment Appeal Tribunal, upholding the earlier decision of the Employment Tribunal, deemed it fair that the employer took into account prior expired warnings in deciding whether to dismiss the employee for misconduct. In this case the employee had 18 prior cases of misconduct, and although the...