In the latest edition of our ‘Need To Know’ employment and HR newsletter, we look at dealing with conflict that arises from expressions of belief in the workplace, an EAT decision on whistleblowing and share an update on the progress of the Shared Parental Leave Bill.
- Religion and belief in the workplace
- Whistleblowing: how much does the decision-maker need to know?
- Shared Parental Leave Bill: Further amendments at Committee stage
We also have included our usual HR Bullets – which cover other significant employment law updates from the past month.
HR Bullets
- A Tribunal awarded £4.6 million to a disabled council employee dismissed while on sick leave, which is likely one of the highest ever disability discrimination awards; Wright-Turner v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and another ET/2206237/18
- The EAT upheld the Respondent’s application to strike out a remedy claim where the Claimant had either destroyed evidence (or lied about it) between the liability and remedy hearings; Kaur v Sun Mark Ltd [2024] EAT 41
- The EAT has upheld a rare Tribunal decision that an employee’s dismissal due to a breakdown of trust and confidence in the working relationship was fair despite a lack of a formal procedure; Matthews v CGI IT UK Ltd [2024] EAT 38
- The EAT has held that separate acts of discrimination linked only by their factual setting do not count as ‘conduct extending over a period’ for the purposes of bringing them all within the ordinary time limit for making a discrimination claim; Allen v Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust [2024] EAT 40
- The ECJ gave a preliminary ruling that when a controller processes an employee’s health data, the exception permitting this in Art. 9(2)(h) GDPR applies in the controller’s capacity as a medical service, not as an employer; ZQ v Medizinischer Dienst der Krankenversicherung Nordrhein Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts (MDK) (Case C-667/21) EU:C:2023:433
- In multi-claimant equal pay litigation, the EAT has upheld that employment judges can refuse an order requiring the lead litigation’s parties to provide all documents and correspondence to claimants of claims stayed pending the lead litigation’s outcome; Aird & Ors v Asda Stores Ltd & Anor [2024] EAT 52
- The UKSC has ruled that s.146 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 does not apply to workers participating in industrial action during working hours, and is incompatible with Art. 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights; Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Mercer [2024] UKSC 12