Where an employer knows (or reasonably ought to know) that an employee is disabled, the duty to make reasonable adjustments is engaged. Employers must take reasonable steps to remove any disadvantage at which an employee is placed by reason of their disability. A recent EAT case looked at whether it could be a failure to make reasonable adjustments, where an adjustment was raised at appeal stage.
‘Associative discrimination’ occurs when someone faces a disadvantage but does not hold the relevant protected characteristic (meaning either sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender reassignment, pregnancy or marriage) themselves. UK law already recognises direct associative discrimination and harassment. For example, in Coleman v Attridge Law, the European Court of Justice ruled that an employee could claim discrimination due to her child’s disability.
In 2007, Tesco re-organised its warehouses resulting in mass relocations. As an alternative to potential redundancy, Tesco negotiated with USDAW (the recognised trade union) that it would give any staff, who stayed on and agreed to be relocated, a ‘Retained Pay’ payment which would be paid to them each month. ‘Retained Pay’ was described in the contracts of employment as ‘permanent’. In 2021, Tesco attempted to remove Retained Pay by firing and re-hiring on new terms which excluded Retained Pay.
As part of his employment law practice, Adrian has advised professional sportsmen and women, as well as clubs and agents, on various aspects of sports law, including:
advising footballers and their agents in relation to settlement agreements when players move clubs.
advising a football club on a serious disciplinary matter involving a professional player
representing a golf professional in an Employment Tribunal case for age discrimination
advising a golf club on its rules in respect of expulsion of members
advising members of the PCA (Professional Cricketers Association) in relation to employment matters / contracts
advising the agent of a high-profile rugby league player who was changing codes to move to rugby union
The landscape surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace has changed significantly following the #MeToo movement dating back to 2017. Since then, following reports published in 2021 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC), the government acknowledged that existing legal protections against harassment in the workplace left room for improvement. It launched a consultation to consider sexual harassment in the workplace including whether a mandatory duty should be imposed upon employers to ensure employees are better protected from sexual harassment.
The utilisation of Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) as a way of exiting a business has grown massively in recent times. This is partly due to the considerable tax benefits it can propose for a selling shareholder, but also because of the long-term advantages it can create for the business subject to the sale.
This article summarises EOTs typical structures and highlights some of its key advantages– for both the selling shareholders and the company being sold.
Employers who wish to avoid the risk of employment claims from departing employees are able to enter into a settlement agreement under which employment claims are settled.
The requirement to travel for a job is usually something that is made clear at the start of employment. Each party knows where they stand. But what happens if an employer’s expectations for employee travel change?
Employers often provide benefits to employees which are not directly administered by the employer themselves. They use third-party providers instead. Private Health Insurance and Company cars are good examples of this. The employer will state in the employment contract that the employee is entitled to the named benefit. The employer will then have a separate commercial agreement with the benefit provider which facilitates this. The employee will not be party to this agreement and will often be entirely unaware of it.
Disclosure is the part of tribunal proceedings where each party — employee and employer — provides the other with a list of all the documents relevant to the issues in the claim. The employment tribunals have adopted the civil court rules in respect of disclosure and inspection of documents. Rule 31.6 of the Civil Procedure Rules requires a party to disclose the documents on which he relies, or which adversely affect his own or another party’s case and those which support any other party’s case.
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