Employment and Trade Union Law
Over the last few days there has been a lot of comment over an Employment Tribunal’s decision that a reference to an employee’s baldness was discriminatory, some of it ill-informed. At the outset of this article, I will say I disagree with the decision that there was harassment in the case but think the case … Continue reading Bald Facts Only
Earlier today the Equality and Human Rights Commission posted an incredibly unhelpful tweet on whether Long Covid is a disability. It includes a line of argument that is, I think, also inconsistent with the Statutory advice it has provided in its Employment Code so its inclusion is doubly confusing. What is disability in law? Going … Continue reading Long Covid and Disability
A recent EAT judgment considered when an employer defence to an employment tribunal claim can be struck out.
A former prison officer has lost her case alleging unfair dismissal after being dismissed for what the employer alleged was gross misconduct. I am not sure, based on the judgement, that that is the right decision given the centrality of the first disciplinary allegation to the dismissal, the uncertainty on my reading of the real … Continue reading Playing Doctor
In February 2020 (back when coronavirus was barely a thing - it seems so long ago!) the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office announced in a press briefing that he had resigned from his role because continuing was no longer tenable, given a reported hostile working relationship caused by alleged activities of the Home Secretary … Continue reading What’s new in Rutnam’s constructive dismissal complaint?
In a relatively rare occurrence a UVW union member has been reinstated after making an interim relief application and an employment tribunal ruled it was likely that his claim would succeed. When an employee is dismissed then a tribunal can order (but not enforce) an employer reinstates the employee to the post they were dismissed … Continue reading Dismissed worker reinstated after manager’s anti-Union rant
Nearly all persons wanting to make an employment tribunal claim must first have received an Earl conciliation certificate from ACAS to enable them to lodge their claim. This applies even if a claimant does not wish to undertake conciliation. Paragraph 9 of schedule 1 of the Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) … Continue reading What is an email address?
The Data Protection Act 1998 allows any person to request a copy of the personal information an organisation holds on them, this includes a request from an employee to their employer. Making such a request is termed a 'subject access request'. Once an employer receives such a request they must - subject to a few … Continue reading Unfair Dismissal because of Subject Access Request failure
When an employee is dismissed they face a decision whether they should appeal against their dismissal using internal appeal mechanisms or apply directly to an Employment Tribunal. Naturally, when an employee has been dismissed and the employee feels that decision is wrong they will frequently want to exercise their right to appeal against that decision. … Continue reading To Appeal or not to Appeal
Reposted from the Unite website: A Unite workplace rep, who was blacklisted by his employer Interserve Industrial Services because of his union activities while working at a power station at Runcorn, Cheshire, has won his employment tribunal (ET) case for unfair dismissal. Unite, the country’s largest union, hailed this as ‘a great victory which draws … Continue reading Tribunal victory for Unite rep blacklisted by construction bosses ‘draws line in the sand’
If UKIP are to be believed there is no longer a problem with racism in UK society, let alone in employment. On that basis the 'we're not racist but ...' UKIP are keen on the scrapping of race discrimination laws that provide some (marginal) legal protections for minority groups in the UK. Over recent months … Continue reading Institutional Racism Lives On
It is certainly not a new tactic: when a politic party makes a proposal with which the other parties are not too enamored they adopt a guilt by association posture. And so it was last week, fresh from the Labour Party launching its Business manifesto cracking down on zero hour contracts, the Tory cheerleaders at … Continue reading Unite Union, Labour, and Zero Hour Contracts
The Lancashire Telegraph is running a story on the unfair dismissal ruling of a former employee of Moorlands School in Clitheroe, Lancashire. Along with two other members of school staff of Moorlands School, a private boarding school in Lancashire, the claimant was supervising a school trip at which a number of pupils got drunk. Depending … Continue reading Unfair Dismissal and the Myth of Red Tape
Rule 11(1) of the Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 requires that "The Tribunal shall reject a claim if it is not accompanied by a Tribunal fee or a remission application." In other words, since the since the introduction of employment tribunal fees if a claim is made but that claim is … Continue reading A Box Ticking Exercise
A letter signed by the TUC's Frances O'Grady and Len McCluskey of Unite among others calls for the scrapping of Employment Tribunal Fees: Since July 2013, when the government introduced fees for anyone taking their employer to an employment tribunal, there has been a huge drop in claims. This is denying workers access to justice … Continue reading Priced Out
I have just been made aware of an interesting first tier tribunal decision that is becoming more and more of an issue for union members who are agency workers on long term contracts. Paragraph 13 of the Agency Worker Regulations 2010 states that 13.—(1) An agency worker has during an assignment the right to be … Continue reading Civil Service Recruitment and Agency Worker Regulations
Back in 2013 the EAT issued the the important decision in Brito-babapulle v Ealing Hospital NHS Trust [2013] UKEAT 0358_12_1406 which that found that the Employment Tribunal's finding that "[o]nce gross misconduct is found, dismissal must always fall within the range of reasonable responses" was an error of law. Specifically, "the Tribunal misdirected itself as … Continue reading Brito-Babapulle, Mark II
Employment Writes 