Equal Pay: Asda barred from forum shopping

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that a complex class action should be heard in the employment tribunal rather than the High Court, reports Christopher Tutton ‘The claimants, who are overwhelmingly (though not exclusively) female, work in hourly-paid jobs in the retail giant’s stores. They are claiming their jobs are of equal value to those …
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Discrimination: Removing employment barriers for Muslim women

Ambiguous legal protection and subconscious bias by recruiters are making it difficult for Muslim women who wear a headscarf to find work. Arpita Dutt and Rolleen McDonnell investigate ‘The requirements of one’s faith cannot be applied outside work but “politely discarded” during working hours. It would be wrong to suppose that, whereas one’s sex and …
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Maternity Discrimination: Not keeping mum – new mothers face dismissal and disadvantage

Åsa Waring and Dominic Boon consider ways to curb growing discrimination against expectant mothers and women returning from maternity leave ‘The Women and Equalities Committee suggested that the government response needed to be more robust if pregnancy-related discrimination is to decline over the next decade.’ The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the former …
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Executive Remuneration: Pressure grows to rein in runaway pay

Stephen Levinson looks at the latest moves by the City to curb boardroom excess ahead of an expected intervention by the government ‘The Investment Association report criticises consultants for tending to be over-reliant on existing market data to justify paying more, for providing too much off-the-shelf standard advice and for supplanting the renumeration committee in …
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Legal News: Employment update

Clare Gregory rounds up recent case law and developments affecting employers and their advisers Changes to taxation of termination payments are confirmed ‘The government proposes changing tax legislation so that where a benefit in kind is provided through salary sacrifice, it will be chargeable to tax and employer NICs at the greater of the amount …
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Public Sector: Workers required to speak fluent English

Public authorities need to update their employment policies and procedures in light of a new requirement for their customer-facing workers to be proficient in English, explain Gemma Cawthray and Charlotte Williams ‘The government’s aim is for the code to be simple and common sense, rather than creating more red tape in the recruitment of public …
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Disability Discrimination: Lessons from recent case law

After two decades, the law on disability discrimination continues to pose challenges for employers and their advisers, reflects Antonia Blackwell ‘One of the key considerations for an employer when managing a disabled employee is whether it can make any reasonable adjustments to enable the employee to return to work in their original role or any …
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