Under the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), employers are potentially liable for acts of discrimination, harassment and victimisation carried out by its workforce. For liability to attach, there has to be a sufficiently close connection with the wrongdoing so that it is considered to have been carried out in Read more…
Discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief has been a hot topic over the last ten years and this year is no different. There have been a number of cases that are factually interesting without laying down any particularly new points of law. We do not expect the number Read more…
We are often approached by prospective clinical negligence clients who do not know whether they have a case. Briefly, in order for you to pursue a clinical negligence case, we must satisfy two legal tests:- We must prove that medical treatment you received fell below a reasonably acceptable standard. This Read more…
In recent years there have been many employment law cases both in the UK and across Europe about what is “appropriate work attire”. The most high profile of these have been to do with an employee’s desire to express their religious beliefs through the wearing of headscarves or crucifixes at work. In Read more…
Proving discrimination in an Employment Tribunal case can often be difficult as discrimination in the workplace is frequently covert or inadvertent. The law therefore allows Tribunal’s to make inferences that discrimination has taken place as a result of the behaviour of an employer by changing the “burden of proof”. The recent case of Read more…
Where an employee is disabled (as defined in the Equality Act 2010) employers are often required to make reasonable adjustments to enable the employee to remain in, or to return to work in, the role they were employed to do. If this is not possible further alternatives must be considered. Read more…
Employers are aware that they are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments where a provision criterion or practice (PCP) puts a disabled employee at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled employees. The recent EAT case of Carreras v United First Partnership Research shows that even an expectation or an Read more…
With the upcoming referendum now less than a month away (taking place on 23 June 2016), what are the potential implications for UK Employment Law of an exit from the EU and how much of the media coverage is fact or fiction? It is fair to say that there has Read more…
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) have recently made a decision in relation to the provision of childcare vouchers during maternity leave, which addresses a previously grey area of the law in relation to maternity rights. The fundamental position when it comes to maternity leave is that an employee is entitled to the benefit Read more…
Not necessarily, according to the recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruling in Kelly v Covance Laboratories Ltd, which will be of interest to employers with an increasingly diverse workforce. Covance Laboratories Ltd (R) operated animal testing in their laboratories and had been subject to unwelcome attention from animal rights activists including Read more…