HR Articles

This week the Government has laid its revised Gender Pay Gap Regulations before Parliament for approval (the “Regulations”).

In the recent case of Gorka Salaberria Sorondo v Academia Vasca de Policia y Emergencias the European Court of Justice determined that the imposition of an upper age limit of 35 years for new recruits to Basque Police Force was not in contravention to EU law.

In R. (on the application of Interim Executive Board of X) v OFSTED the High Court was asked to decide whether a school that segregated pupils by gender was guilty of sex discrimination under the Equality Act.

The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland has upheld the decision that a bakery which refused to fulfil an order for a cake with a slogan supporting gay marriage amounted to sexual orientation discrimination.

Tesco made changes to their pay structures earlier in the year which resulted in an increase to basic pay but a decrease in pay related to unsocial hours, weekend work and bank holidays.

An employment tribunal has concluded that some of EasyJet’s roster practices indirectly discriminated against two breastfeeding flight attendants.

A London recruitment agency, Matching Models, has been heavily criticised for posting job adverts on their website for “attractive women”, a “sexy female driver”, and a PA with “a classic look, brown long hair with b-c cup”.

More than 7,000 Asda employees have brought equal pay claims in the Employment Tribunal, alleging that in-store work such as shelf-stacking and checkout roles (predominantly carried out by female employees) is of equal value to warehouse work (predominantly carried out by men).

In the case of Buchanan v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the EAT gave useful guidance on the objective justification defence available to employers in certain discrimination claims

In the case of Snell v Network Rail, the tribunal awarded a father just over £28,000 in compensation after he was refused the same pay as his wife while on shared parental leave.