The Practical Lawyer

There has been much publicity about an employee being able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal based on a belief in climate change.

In the EAT’s view, a belief in man-made climate change is capable of being a ‘philosophical belief’ and thus within the scope of the Religion or Belief Regs 2003. But, the belief must be:

A standard disclosure from the Criminal Records Bureau will cover past convictions, including convictions that have become spent. Enhanced disclosures cover additional items, such as information from local police records about matters other than convictions (eg soft intelligence about acquittals, allegations that have never been taken to court, or even matters other than allegations of criminal conduct). Enhanced disclosures apply to a wide range of individuals working with children and vulnerable adults.

It is now well established that a period of sickness while on holiday does not count towards the annual holiday leave entitlement. Thus, an employee who is sick while on holiday, can claim that sick time as extra holiday (see our November [2009] issue, p14).

The EAT has reinterpreted the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, so as to apply to ‘associative’ discrimination. This means the Act protects someone who is not disabled, but who is associated with someone who is disabled.

Service-related pay scales often put women at a disadvantage (they are less likely to have continuous service due to childcare responsibilities). However, it has been accepted that an employer will not usually be required to objectively justify having length-related pay because, as a general rule, experience increases with length of service, and experience enables the employee to do their job better, therefore justifying paying more money.

Since 1 October, employers are prohibited from using customer tips, gratuities and service charges to make up payment of the national minimum wage. Thus, customers now can be sure that such tips will be given to staff on top of their minimum wages.

The ECJ has confirmed that a period of sickness while on holiday does not count towards the annual leave entitlement.

An employee was due to take his annual leave from 16 July to 14 August. But, he had an accident on 3 July and was off sick until 13 August, and thus his sick leave almost entirely overlapped his holiday period. He requested additional holiday, but that was denied. The ECJ decided that the employee could, on request, take his annual leave at a later date – there could be no derogation from entitlement to paid annual leave.

If an employee wins an unfair claim based on constructive dismissal, then the tribunal will usually make two awards: the ‘basic award’ (ie similar to the statutory redundancy payment), and the ‘compensatory award’ (which is designed to compensate for lost earnings).

How do you deal with an employee who you think is in repudiatory breach of contract, but who is off work with a stress-related illness?

The High Court has held that the UK’s default retirement age of 65 is lawful.