HR Articles

After much press coverage in the build up to the reporting deadline of 4 April 2018, organisations employing more than 250 employees have now published their gender pay gap data and the results are now available for all to see. While the BBC reported that around 1,500 organisations missed the deadline to report, the results that are in make for tough reading.

In the wake of various high profile sexual harassment stories in both the UK and the US, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have taken several steps to improve the situation for employees in the UK. This has led to them publishing a report in March this year entitled “Turning the tables: ending sexual harassment at work”.

The EAT has held that in a case for a pregnancy related unfair dismissal, the key date in analysing the decision to dismiss is when the employer becomes aware of the pregnancy.

In Air Products Plc v Cockram, the claimant was part of his employer’s defined benefit pension scheme which allowed access to pension at 50 years of age.

A YouGov survey conducted on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has exposed that 41% of managers think pregnancy in the workplace places “an unnecessary cost burden” on employers.

An employer does not have to take every possible step possible to establish whether an employee is disabled. The test is what an employer could reasonably be expected to know.

The Fawcett Society recently published its analysis of the efficacy of sex discrimination law in the UK (“the Report”). Whilst acknowledging the efforts made in this area to date, the Report goes on to identify a number of areas in which significant reform is still required. We identify the points likely to be of most interest to employers below.

In The Chief Constable of Norfolk v Coffey the EAT held that an employer’s belief that an employee’s hearing problem may become a disability in the future amounted to direct perceived disability discrimination.

Gender remains on the agenda as we move into the new year! The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published its draft enforcement strategy for pursuing large private, voluntary and public sector employers who fail to comply with the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Under the Regulations, private and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees in the UK are required to publish data surrounding their gender pay gap, with the first reports due by the 4th April 2018.

Only in August 2017 we reported on the case of Efobi v Royal Mail in which the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) reversed the long standing legal position that in discrimination cases claimants must show an inference of discrimination before the burden of proof shifts to the employer.