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Emily Skinner discusses the Supreme Court’s ruling in the ‘gay cake’ case on alleged sexual orientation discrimination and the potential for conflict with religious beliefs ‘Mr Lee brought claims under Northern Ireland’s discrimination legislation for direct discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, religious belief and/or political opinion.’ In recent years, there have been several …
Continue reading "Sexual orientation: Testing the boundaries of direct discrimination"
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David Cummings examines the government’s proposals for mandatory reporting of an organisation’s ethnicity pay gap ‘As the government recognises in its consultation paper, pay disparities between ethnic groups are the consequence of a complicated and overlapping set of drivers.’ Last month, the government kicked off its consultation on proposed mandatory ethnicity pay reporting for employers …
Continue reading "Ethnicity pay reporting: Noble aims – but difficult issues to navigate"
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Employers face challenging decisions about how to treat contractors for tax purposes under HMRC reforms. They could even face claims that those individuals are entitled to employment rights, warns Mark Leach ‘There has been little interest among employing organisations in the taxation obligations of IR35. This is because the onus has traditionally been on the …
Continue reading "Employment status: Off payroll, on HMRC’s hit list"
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In the first part of a new series on how to write or refresh employment policies, Clare Davis looks at what to include in a staff handbook and how to avoid problems when making changes ‘Key policies for any organisation to include, regardless of size, would be equal opportunities and disciplinary and grievance procedures.’ A …
Continue reading "Staff procedures: Create or update an employee handbook"
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The EAT appears to have widened the range of situations in which employers might lose legal advice privilege, reports Ben Daniel ‘As a baseline principle, it would be wise to steer clear of any narrative which could be viewed as underhand or deceitful on the available facts.’ Legal advice given by a lawyer to a …
Continue reading "Legal privilege: When does legal advice lose its confidential status?"
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With recent decisions showing that employers, tribunals and even the Home Office are confused about right-to-work checks, Samar Shams sheds light on this tricky area ‘Most commonly, a skilled migrant sponsored to do one job is promoted into a different role; this constitutes illegal working if the sponsoring employer does not report the change to …
Continue reading "Immigration: Truth, proof and the right to work"
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Antonia Blackwell considers some of the pitfalls facing employers seeking to justify their actions in the context of a claim for discrimination arising from a person’s disability ‘A key feature of s15 of the Equality Act is that an employer can justify unfavourable treatment arising from a person’s disability if it is a proportionate means …
Continue reading "Disability discrimination: ‘Arising from’ claims – lessons from recent case law"
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A five-month gap between contracts did not prevent there being a transfer of an undertaking, explain Nicola Ihnatowicz and Anna Scott ‘The ECJ’s finding that a five-month gap in services did not necessarily preclude a finding that this was a going concern ties in with UK case law.’ The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has …
Continue reading "TUPE: Potential transfer even with a long gap between contracts"
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Ben Dawson looks at the key things to be aware of when drafting settlements, including how to maintain confidentiality without breaching new guidance on non-disclosure agreements ‘A settlement agreement is a legally binding agreement in which the employee gives up their right to make specified claims and, if relevant, withdraws any current claim against the …
Continue reading "Dispute resolution: How to draw up a watertight settlement agreement"
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Amanda Sanders examines a draft directive and various UK proposals aimed at encouraging men and women to share parenting and other caring responsibilities more equally ‘The draft directive sets out minimum standards so as to create more convergence between EU member states, preserving and extending existing rights on paternity leave, parental leave, carer’s leave and …
Continue reading "Parents and carers at work: New EU and UK proposals on work-life balance"
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