Need to Know: October 2021

HR Bullets

• An Employment Tribunal has found that an estate agent suffered unlawful indirect discrimination based on her sex as her flexible working request was rejected. The tribunal found that her employer had not shown that refusal of the proposed reduction in hours of work was proportionate to the real need of the business to maintain successful relations with customers.
  (Mrs A Thompson_vs_Scancrown_Ltd_trading_as_Manors.)
• It was held not to be discriminatory to send a pregnant worker home during the early stages of the pandemic and delay her return to work until adequate social distancing measures were put in place.
  (Miss_A_Prosser_v Community Gateway_Association Ltd)
• An Employment Tribunal found that it was automatically unfair to dismiss an employee who refused to attend the home of a self-isolating manager.
  (Mr_M_Ham_v_Esl_Bbsw_Ltd)
• The Court of Appeal found that a charitable fostering agency’s policy requiring foster carers to refrain from ‘homosexual behaviour’ constituted unlawful discrimination.
  (Cornerstone-v-Ofsted)
• PwC has discerned that there was an almost 20% fall in FTSE 250 CEO remuneration during 2020. PwC believes this was at least partly a result of the ongoing impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on UK businesses.
  (executive-pay-ftse-250-agm-update-september-2021)