Employment Matters

In this edition

• What now for IR35?
• Employer making redundancies deciding on a pool of one without prior consultation was unfair
• The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: why it matters to your business
• New regulations will prevent exclusivity terms in low income worker contracts
• What can employers do to support employees facing fertility challenges?

In this edition

• Changes to Right to Work Checks from 1 October 2022
• New ACAS guidance on suspending staff
• Bereavement in the workplace
• Government’s Growth Plan: Off-payroll working rules to be repealed

• Court of Appeal overturns High Court decision on Tesco ‘fire and rehire’
  The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal from Tesco against the previous decision of the High Court which granted an injunction preventing it from ‘firing and rehiring’ employees in order to force a change to terms and conditions of employment.
• Gender critical beliefs are protected in the workplace
  In June 2021 Ms Forstater successfully established a binding legal precedent that gender critical beliefs were in principle protected by the Equality Act. Following that appeal her case continued at the Employment Tribunal to determine whether she was discriminated against on the basis of her protected belief.
• Employers must ensure that the “punishment fits the crime” when considering disciplinary sanctions
  When a disciplinary officer has heard all the evidence at a disciplinary hearing, they must decide whether it is appropriate to impose a disciplinary sanction. This could be anything from a first written warning to dismissal without notice. When considering dismissal there are 5 potentially fair reasons. These are conduct, capability, redundancy, a legal reason and ‘some other substantial reason’. This article focuses on conduct dismissals.
• Keeping the status quo: the Government confirms that it will not reform the law on employment status
  The Government has published a response to its 2018 consultation on the UK’s current employment status framework. The Government’s response confirms that it will not reform this complex area of the law. Businesses must therefore continue to use the current framework to determine the correct employment status of individuals providing services.

• A breach or a fundamental breach
  Constructive unfair dismissal claims are difficult claims to bring successfully as the burden is on the Claimant to show that there was a fundamental breach that they resigned in response to (promptly).
• Forcing an employee to express milk in car and toilet held to be harassment
  An Employment Tribunal has recently held that a school committed an act of harassment on the grounds of sex when they did not provide a space for a female teacher to express breast milk at work.
• The menopause at work – why should it matter to employers?
  The Minister for Work and Pensions and Minister for Women, has this week confirmed that the Government is not currently planning to introduce menopause as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. However, employers should still consider the implications of menopause which is an emerging issue for employers.