HR Articles

In the case of Pendleton v Derbyshire v County Council, a teacher who was dismissed for remaining with her husband following his conviction of voyeurism and making of indecent images of children successfully appealed a tribunal’s decision to reject her claim for indirect religious discrimination.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have fined Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £180,000 after it revealed the email addresses of 781 users of an HIV service. Patients using the HIV service were sent a newsletter which mistakenly included all recipients email addresses in the ‘to’ field instead of the 'bcc' field.

The recent High Court decision of Axon v Ministry of Defence and News Group Newspapers Ltd suggests that employers can be held vicariously liable for their employees’ breaches of confidence and privacy.

On 12 May the Immigration Bill received Royal Assent and will now be implemented as the Immigration Act 2016. The Act seeks to address issues around illegal migrants living in the UK.

This week has seen the widely reported story of Nicola Thorp, a temporary receptionist, who was sent home without pay for refusing to wear heels at work. Ms Thorp started an e-petition seeking to give women the choice whether to wear flats or heels at work and, to date, has in excess of 100,000 signatories, triggering the possibility of a Parliamentary debate on the issue.

In the case of Gibbs v Leeds United Football Club, the High Court found that the Claimant, Mr Gibbs, had been constructively dismissed when he resigned in response to a demotion, even though he’d been in negotiations over his exit.

The recent case of Risby v London Borough of Waltham Forest has arguably further extended the scope of discrimination arising from disability claims by loosening the causal link required between the employee’s disability and the employer’s treatment complained of.

The Trade Union Bill received Royal Assent yesterday and has now become the Trade Union Act! Its passage through parliament was a turbulent one with the Bill receiving significant criticism from opposing MPs and Peers.

As part of its new Innovation Plan, the Government has asked businesses across the UK for their views on whether ‘non compete clauses’ in employment contracts are obstructing the UK’s innovativeness and employment opportunities.

What’s it all about? The existing law on data protection within the EU is based on a European directive introduced over 20 years ago.