All employers and their advisers must keep abreast of the government’s guidance of working safely during Covid-19. There have been six updates during September alone. The 14 guides cover a range of different workplaces and many businesses will operate more than one workplace. Priority actions are at the top of each guide. The priority actions …
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Note there is also government guidance, published on 10 September 2020, giving guidance to employers on the test and trace service. Despite the present difficulties with securing a test, employers must be aware of their obligations and should read the guidance in full. In recognition of the issues at the moment, the guidance states: ‘The …
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Under the Equality Act 2010 it is against the law to discriminate against someone because of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. These are known as the protected characteristics. A recent ET decision has held that a gender fluid/non-binary employee who …
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Employment lawyers will remain busy due to the Covid-19 situation. Government support is ever evolving and a new scheme to replace the furlough scheme has been announced. The Job Support Scheme will run from 1 November 2020 for six months. It will allow employees to work a minimum of 33% of their normal hours and …
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Readers may notice that we have not reported as much in recent months on ET cases – this is due to the backlog of some 45,000 ET cases that are waiting to be heard. The pithily titled Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 have …
Continue reading “ET process – to speed up?”
The CA has heard the appeal as to whether the Pensions Acts enacted between 1995 and 2014 which equalised the state pension age for men and women and then raised the state pension age for both genders gives rise to unlawful discrimination either directly on the basis of age or indirectly on the basis of …
Continue reading “Pension age – women lose”
An interesting article highlights the key steps that employers can take to mitigate the risk of a claim from employees around the very sensitive issue of returning to work. The article suggests that employers should: Follow the government’s guidance. In particular, encourage remote working when possible. Ask staff to return on a genuinely voluntary basis …
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Currently, unless they are working from home or on furlough, employees who are shielding should receive SSP. However, from 1 August 2020, they will no longer be deemed incapable of work for SSP purposes. They can therefore only continue to receive SSP if they are entitled to it on another basis (in other words, because …
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An interesting article explores the challenges faced by employers when consulting with furloughed or remote workers about redundancies and changing terms. It contains some useful tips as follows: Ensure that only relevant parties receive an invitation to the online meeting, and that the line or online portal for hosting the meeting is secure and compliant …
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Section 188(7) of TULRCA provides a defence to a failure to collectively consult where there are ‘special circumstances which render it not reasonably practicable’ for the employer to comply with the requirements. This defence applies to failures to consult in good time, failures to consult on the required topics with a view to reaching agreement …
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