HR Articles

It is accepted that attendance at religious festivals can constitute a manifestation of religious belief giving rise to indirect discrimination claims, however, the EAT in Gareddu v London Underground Ltd held that the employee’s request must be genuine

Last week the Government responded to calls from MPs on the Woman and Equalities Committee to give pregnant women and mothers greater legal protection in the workplace.

A House of Commons Joint Committee report examining workplace dress codes has been published.

As expected the Government has extended the requirement to publish annual gender pay gap reports to the public sector.

The case of City of York Council v Grosset concerned a teacher who had cystic fibrosis. The Claimant complained to the head teacher that his workload was unmanageable but no action was taken to try and reduce the Claimant’s workload.

The Spanish courts recently asked the European Court of Justice for guidance on whether an employee with a dislocated elbow could be classed as disabled, even though his injury was only temporary. Although this case was brought in the Spanish courts, the European Court’s decision is equally relevant to us here in the UK as our disability discrimination law is governed by the same overarching principles contained in the European Equal Treatment Directive.

Conservative MP Phillip Davies, a recently elected member of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, has claimed that men actually earn less than women in part-time work. Could this be a surprising twist in the tale of gender pay gaps?

In the recent case of Reverend Canon J C Pemberton v The Right Reverend Richard Inwood, Acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, the Respondent was able to rely on an exception in the Equality Act 2010 to avoid liability for an otherwise discriminatory act.

In Herry v Dudley MBC the EAT was asked to consider if stress amounted to a disability under the Equality Act. Further, it was asked to consider if the Tribunal had fully considered the Claimant’s ability to pay when ordering him to pay all the Respondent’s costs (in excess of £100,000).

This week the Government has laid its revised Gender Pay Gap Regulations before Parliament for approval (the “Regulations”).