Third Party Harassment: Relief for Employers? The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill proposed to make employers liable for harassment of their employees by third parties, including sexual harassment. However, the House of Lords recently amended...
Is Menopause a Disability? Whilst potentially considered a taboo subject in the past, there is now far more conversation about menopause and, with employment rates for women aged 50 – 64 increasing from 46.9% in 1992 to 66.3% in 2023, more women are experiencing...
Racist language – immediate dismissal or ill-judged mistake? A recent decision by the Employment Tribunal has received media attention when a 58-year-old Lloyds Bank employee, with no prior disciplinary record, was unfairly dismissed for using the N-word at work. This...
Gender Neutral Insults – Taking All Reasonable Steps In considering whether a transgender employee had been subject to discrimination, the Employment Tribunal has stated that the term ‘w****r’ is not a gender-neutral term and that using such a term towards a...
Sexual Harassment at work – Isn’t it 2023? In a recent judgment, the Tribunal awarded a substantial £357,000 to a 22-year-old trainee Project Supervisor from the National Grid, for 26 acts of sexual harassment and 8 acts of victimisation at the hands of her manager,...
Job Application by Phone – a Reasonable Adjustment? The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) judgment in AECOM v Mr Mallon demonstrates the importance of employers considering all options for reasonable adjustments, including for job applicants. In this recent judgment,...
Bullying at work – A step too far? Employers have a duty to provide a safe working environment to their employees, to ensure they are not discriminated against, and do not suffer harassment or victimisation, due to any of the protected characteristics under the...
Terminating Employment – Who Really Makes the Decision? In the firing line! A recent decision in the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed the importance for employers of being clear about who the decision maker is and what influences their final decision during...
Government names and shames over NMW Last week the government published a list naming and shaming over 200 employers for failing to pay the National Minimum Wage (‘NMW’) to 63,000 workers, amounting to a combined underpayment of almost £5 million. Among them were some...
UK Competition Regulator stops Microsoft’s cloud gaming acquisition Microsoft is a name that comes to everyone’s mind when we think of computer software. Microsoft also has an estimated market share of 60-70% in global cloud gaming services. While Microsoft has been...
