Need to Know: Employment and HR Newsletter – Edition 14

Shared parental pay – where are we, and where are we heading?

In April the TUC announced that a mere 1% of new parents eligible to take shared parental leave are using it. Will Clift discusses the reasons why take up is so low, and the implications that recent developments in the law may have going forwards.

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Employer who refused to post a disabled employee abroad over medical concerns did not discriminate

Aleksandra Traczyk explores the recent case Owen v AMEC Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd and another where the Court of Appeal ruled that an employee with multiple disabilities did not suffer direct disability discrimination when his employer withdrew an offer of overseas assignment after a medical assessment identified that he was highly likely to require medical attention while abroad.

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Dismissed for promoting religious belief: is proselytization in the workplace acceptable?

In the recent case of Kuteh v Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust the Court of Appeal considered whether a nurse was dismissed unfairly after she failed to follow instructions from her employer to cease promoting Christianity among her patients. Alexander Bartlett looks at the case in more detail and highlights the repercussions for employers.

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Express HR: Employment law developments in bitesize chunks

• The Employment Appeal Tribunal in Baldeh v Churches Housing Association of Dudley and District Ltd has held that employers may still be liable for discrimination where the employer did not know about an employee’s disability at the time of dismissal, but was later made aware of the employee’s medical condition during the appeal process.
• According to the Business Disability Forum’s Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey, only 19% of respondents with disability adjustments in place felt that such modifications had successfully removed all barriers and highlighted the need for change.
• The European Court of Justice in Federación de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) v Deutsche Bank SAE has held that employers must keep records of daily hours worked by employees to fulfil its obligations under the Working Time Directive rather than ‘adequate’ weekly records as currently required under the UK Working Time Regulations.
• The Insolvency Service has released new guidance on what payments an employee may be entitled to when their employer becomes insolvent and how employees can apply.
• The Women and Equalities Committee has introduced The Pregnancy and Maternity (Redundancy Protection) Bill 2019 which seeks to prohibit making employees redundant during pregnancy, maternity leave and for six months following the end of maternity leave.
• A new report from the TUC has unearthed a hidden epidemic of LGBT sexual harassment after finding that 68% of LGBT employees have been sexually harassed at work.
• Statements made by employers whilst giving evidence during Employment Tribunal proceedings cannot form the basis of a new victimisation claim, according to the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Aston v The Martlet Group.