Say what you mean!
August 1, 2011
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently handed down its decision in the case of Publicis Consultants v O’Farrell which reminds us all that ambiguity can be costly. Read more
Archive for August, 2011
Who is an employee?
August 1, 2011
Over the years there have been a number of cases on the important question of who is an employee. The Employment Rights Act contains a rather circular definition of an employee – being someone who works under a contract of employment. Many years ago Lord Denning in the Court of Appeal said that he would recognise an employee when he saw one! Not surprisingly businesses and workers want more certainty because the question of employment status is important – most employment rights, such as the right to minimum notice to terminate the contract, the right to claim unfair dismissal and many more are only available to employees. Read more
Knowing your employees’ rights
August 1, 2011
It is well known that when an employee attends a disciplinary hearing, they have a statutory right to bring a colleague or a trade union representative to accompany them at the hearing. A number of recent cases appeared to be showing a growing trend of increasing the scope of this right to include legal representation in certain circumstances. However, the Supreme Court’s most recent decision in R (on the application of G) v Governors of X School has nipped this growing trend in the bud. Read more
Tribunal time limits – ignorance is bliss?
August 1, 2011
Employees who want to bring a claim in the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal (or most other claims) must submit their application so that it is received by the tribunal within 3 months from the date of dismissal, or other act complained of. This means that the tribunal has to receive the claim one day before the 3 month time limit, so for example a person whose employment ended on 2 January would need to get their claim filed with the tribunal by midnight on 1 April. And midnight means midnight – claims sent electronically and received by the tribunal 9 seconds after midnight have been held to be out of time. Read more
Homophobic comment or passing comment?
August 1, 2011
In Grant v HM Land Registry, the Court of Appeal has held that in order for something to amount to harassment under the discrimination legislation, it must be something which is more than trivial. Harassment occurs where a person engages in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic (in this case sexual orientation) which has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. Read more
When can discrimination be justified?
August 1, 2011
The law protects people against discrimination on the basis of a large number of protected characteristics, for example sex and race, but can discrimination ever be justified? Read more