HR Articles

In the first case brought before the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) under the Equal Treatment Directive (on which the Equality Act 2010 is based), Advocate General Kokott’s opinion (effectively a draft judgment) has made a somewhat surprising finding that where an employee is prohibited from wearing any visible signs of political, philosophical or religious belief, so long as the prohibition is consistent among differing religious groups, this would not amount to direct religious discrimination.

No wonder employees feel unhappy. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recognised last year that the share of UK economic growth enjoyed by workers is at its lowest since the Second World War. Amazing, given all that has occurred and the evident progress over the past couple of decades, let alone the last 70 years.

Immigration is never far from the headlines and never has it been so widely discussed as in the lead-up to the EU referendum.

In the recent case of Globe Motors Inc v TRW Lucas Variety Electric Steering Ltd, the Court of Appeal held that a contractual clause requiring variations to be in writing did not prevent a variation being agreed by a different method i.e. verbally or by conduct.

In Carreras v United First Partnership Research, the EAT held that an expectation made by the employer that a disabled employee would work late was capable of amounting to a ‘provision, criterion or practice’ (PCP) under the Equality Act 2010 which, if placing a disabled employee at a substantial disadvantage, would trigger the duty to make reasonable adjustments.

It may not spell the total demise of HR, but the rise of robots now promises a big difference to workforce numbers and character.

Early conciliation is a free service offered by ACAS. It was previously available on a purely voluntary basis, however, from May 2014 it became mandatory to contact ACAS before lodging a claim.

The case of Santos Gomes v Higher Level Care Ltd has made clear that compensation arising out of an employer’s failure to provide statutory rest breaks under the Working Time Regulations (WTR) does not extend to ‘injury to feelings’.

One of the worst letters which HR can receive has to be a letter from the Home Office headed “Information Request: Illegal Working Civil Penalty” and demanding information about a current or former employee whom the Home Office suspects has been working illegally in the UK.

Focus in many successful companies is concentration on winning business, operational excellence and adding profit. All good, but do human relationships usually get sidelined?