Welcome to our October HRizon employment law newsletter.
We look at a wrongful dismissal arising from a workplace assault, the appropriate timing of meaningful individual redundancy consultation and the need to disclose draft workplace investigations within ET proceedings. We also explore the ICO’s new draft guidance regarding monitoring at work and highlight other recent employment law cases and HR news from the last month.
Recent employment cases
The EAT has held that an employment tribunal was entitled to hold that an employee who witnessed a workplace assault, and failed to intervene and/or report it, had been wrongfully dismissed; his actions did not amount to an act of gross misconduct justifying his dismissal without notice. Read more…
The EAT has held that an employee was unfairly dismissed for redundancy because the employer had made key decisions about selection criteria before commencing consultation and this led to the ‘automatic’ selection of the employee. The employer should have started consultation at a time when the employee could influence the outcome. Read more…
An employment tribunal has awarded an employee £36,000+ for indirect sex discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal arising from the rejection of her flexible working request on return from maternity leave. Read more…
The EAT has held that a tribunal erred when it rejected multiple equal pay claims because the claimant’s name did not appear on the early conciliation certificate; it was sufficient that the claim form contained an early conciliation number for each respondent and that the early conciliation certificate contained the name of one of the prospective claimants making the joint claim. Read more…
An employment tribunal has refused an employer’s application for costs. Although the claim brought by its ex-employee was misconceived and had no prospects of success, had the employee taken legal advice, he could have brought a whistleblowing claim which would have been even more expensive for the employer to defend; the employer had therefore indirectly ‘benefited’ from the employee’s mistake. Read more…
Employment and HR news
Legal advice privilege cannot be applied retrospectively to original unprivileged documents
The EAT has recently held that a grievance investigation report, covering allegations of harassment, bullying, discrimination, and racial abuse, did not retrospectively attract legal advice privilege when the amended version, which took account of legal advice, was disclosed. Read more…
Data protection: ICO consultation on draft employment practices: monitoring at work guidance
The Information Commissioner’s Office has launched a consultation on draft employment practices: monitoring at work guidance. The draft guidance provides clarity and practical advice regarding an employer’s legal obligations under the data protection legislation when engaging in monitoring its workers. Read more…
For further information, please contact:
Emma Ahmed, Hill Dickinson
emma.ahmed@hilldickinson.com
