Legal news: Employment update

Lauren Bholé rounds up recent developments affecting employers and their advisers The right to request carer’s leave will be a day one employment right, so employees will not need any minimum length of service before they can request the leave. Government publishes its response to the carer’s leave consultation In March 2020, the government launched …
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Discrimination: Religious or philosophical belief – exploring the boundaries of legal protection

Joanna Chatterton and Ed Livingstone examine the case law and new Acas guidance on religion and belief discrimination ‘Employers should be wary of relying too heavily on the scenarios set out in Acas’s new guidance, as the Employment Appeal Tribunal decision in Bakkali shows.’ In May 2018, Acas published new guidance on religion and belief …
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Discrimination: Bake’s off: lessons from the Bert and Ernie cake case

A controversial judgment has reignited debate about the conflict between protection from discrimination and the values of organisations and their workers. Phil Allen explains ‘While some of the cases on the breadth of the meaning of belief in the context of religious discrimination might raise some interesting arguments, there is a requirement for such beliefs …
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Discrimination Law: Managing competing workplace rights

Catherine McGrath sets out recent case law on the conflict between sexual orientation and religious rights at work ‘When faced with competing rights and interests, the courts have to undertake a careful balancing exercise and are afforded wide discretion when considering conflicting ECHR rights.’ On 19 May 2015 the Northern Ireland County Court handed down …
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Religion Or Belief: Forgetting the Sabbath day

Employers need to take care over Sunday working despite a recent ruling that a Christian care worker did not have to be given the day off, warns Philippa O’Malley ‘The tribunal held that the requirement to work on Sundays was a proportionate method for the council to achieve its legitimate aims. Mrs Mba had suggested …
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Philosophical Belief: Do you believe in fairies?

Mark Levine and Laura Ford consider whether the tribunals are becoming more willing to accept claims that an employee’s beliefs have been infringed ‘The initial cases decided under the Regulations were relatively unsurprising and the beliefs put forward seem to have largely been judged by comparison to religions and religious beliefs.’ In 2003 the Employment …
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