News

On 8 June 2023, as the UK Health Security Agency and Met Office issued the first yellow heat-health alert of the year, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) called on employers to protect workers during periods of extreme hot weather. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require employers to ensure that temperatures in … Read more

The DfE have released the 2023 version of its Keeping Children Safe in Education document. This comes into effect from 1st September 2023.  The key points are as follows: Link to document: Keeping children safe in education 2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

In order to establish that a dismissal was for a pregnancy related reason, an employee must prove that the actual decision maker decided to dismiss for a pregnancy related reason.  If the decision maker is influenced by another employee, who is motivated to act in a discriminatory manner, that is not sufficient.  In summary, the … Read more

On 24 May 2023, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published guidance on subject access requests (SARs) for businesses and employers The article is titled, “SARs Q&A for employers” alongside a blog. The right of individuals to access their own personal data that organisations hold is contained in the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018. If organisations … Read more

The EAT has upheld an employment tribunal’s finding that it was unfair to make an employee redundant during the COVID-19 pandemic without considering furlough as an alternative. Mrs Mhindurwa was a live-in carer. In May 2020, she was put at risk of redundancy due to a reduction in live-in care work. She asked to be … Read more

The DfE have updated their ‘Handling strike action in schools’ guidance. The guidance has been updated to provide further information on prioritising pupils, the law on industrial action and picketing, providing free school meals to eligible pupils and calculating pay deductions for part time workers. Here is a link to the guidance: Handling strike action in … Read more

The 2022 NJC pay settlement for England, Wales and Northern Ireland gave all support staff an increase of one day of annual leave from 1 April 2023. For full year staff this will simply be an additional one day and pro rata for part time, full year staff. In relation to Term Time Only staff … Read more

The EAT has upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that an employee’s conduct when he came into conflict with colleagues was not something arising in consequence of his disabilities for the purposes of a discrimination arising from disability claim under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010. Under section 15(1) of the Equality Act 2010 (EqA … Read more

We have received a number of enquiries recently about this topic.  The link to the Gov guide for employers is here  and below – Shared Parental Leave and Pay: employer guide: Overview – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Parents do not have to use the SPL system. The default position on the birth of a child is that … Read more

In Meaker v Cyxtera Technology UK Ltd the claimant was employed in a heavy manual night role. He suffered back injuries in August 2016 and November 2018. Following the second of these he was off work for an extended period. At a certain point it was agreed that limitations on his ability to do heavy … Read more