Employment and Trade Union Law
Last month the EHRC supervised a fiasco when it issued guidance that Long Covid could not a disability. It was a legal nonsense but, given the position it holds, the guidance was damaging in potentially giving employers a false sense of security and dissuading victims of discrimination asserting their rights. I posted a number of … Continue reading Second Employment Tribunal determines Long Covid can be a disability
Following on from the last post on EHRC's ill-advised guidance to managers that employers do not consider Long Covid to be a disability under the Equality Act 2010 I thought I would take a look at whether and how this has been considered by employment tribunals to date. Because of delays in tribunal processes and … Continue reading Long Covid at the Employment Tribunal
The Employment Appeal Tribunal's decision in Knightly v Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Trust (2022) is another in a line of cases on the interrelation of the range of reasonable responses test in unfair dismissal and the proportionality test in discrimination cases. The disabled claimant who was dismissed after a long sickness absence claimed that … Continue reading Discrimination in Dismissal Process does not make Dismissal unfair.
When challenging a dismissal in a unfair dismissal context then the employer's handling of any appeal will be part and parcel of the consideration of whether the dismissal was fair or unfair. If an employer makes a complete pig's ear of an appeal then even if the original decision was fair the overall process will … Continue reading Appeals matter too
Section 15 of the Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to treat a disabled person unfavourably for something that arises in consequence of the person's disability. The Act itself defines the unlawful treatment in this way: 15 Discrimination arising from disability (1) A person (A) discriminates against a disabled person (B) if—(a)A treats B unfavourably … Continue reading Is it Proportionate?
It has been covered a few times and will hopefully be clear to readers that if a worker is absent from work and the reason for the absence is because of a disability related reason then the employer may is likely to be under a duty to make disability related adjustments if, because of those … Continue reading Short term sickness absences and disability
When does an employer have constructive knowledge of disability?
Anti Irish Traveller rhetoric not Harassment, finds ET
In this third post on direct discrimination I am going to comment on the role of section 136(2) of the Equality Act which provides that when considering a discrimination complaint that If there are facts from which the court could decide, in the absence of any other explanation, that a person (A) contravened the provision … Continue reading Direct Discrimination: Burden of Proof
Over the next couple of days I will be posting a four part series on direct discrimination, specifically on the role of intent, causation, proving discrimination and what defences are available. It is not a detailed explanation but an introduction to these four aspects. To someone who has not had personal experience of the legal … Continue reading Direct Discrimination: Reason and Intention
Just over a year ago the Employment Appeal Tribunal issued its decision in Lofty v Hamis t/a First CafĂ©Â and in its wake there was a lot of online discussions about whether precancerous conditions come within the deemed disability provisions of the Equality Act 2010. Normally, in order to be a disability for the purposes … Continue reading Pre-Cancer
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
A few weeks ago I made reference to the preamble of European Council Directive 1999/70/EC on fixed term appointments which states that the "parties to this agreement recognise that contracts of an indefinite duration are, and will continue to be, the general form of employment relationship between employers and workers." Likewise, the Civil Service Management … Continue reading Indirect Discrimination and Fixed Term Workers
Claims under sections 19 and 20 of the Equality Act 2010 require that a provision, criterion or practice place (or in s.19 would place if applied) an individual with a protected characteristic at a substantial (in the case of section 20) or a particular (in the case of section 19) disadvantage. In Edie & 15 … Continue reading Changes of Contract and the Equality Act
Imagine you work in a company with two employees, both Indian, and an employer who is also Indian. You come from the Dalit caste in the caste system, meanwhile your employer and a fellow employee performing the same role as both share a higher caste. You notice that despite having exactly the same job as … Continue reading Race and Caste Discrimination
Employment Writes 