HR Articles

In the first perceived disability case to be heard by the Court of Appeal, the court has upheld the decision that a police officer with marginal hearing loss suffered direct discrimination when she was turned down for a transfer to the Norfolk Constabulary.

In the recent case of Mr D Wilkinson v Emovis Operations Leeds Ltd: 1809825/2018, the Employment Tribunal did not accept that depression impacts only one part of an individual’s cognitive functioning.

For over 20 years, Clarkslegal has been an integral part of the UK delegation to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations agency which sets international labour standards and monitors compliance with them.

In the recent case of Khawaja v Transport for London, a Tribunal found that an employee had been subjected to direct race discrimination by his manager in respect of the allocation of training opportunities.

The Women and Equalities Select Committee (“WESC”) has called for the government to either ban or reset the parameters on which NDAs are used by employers to silence employees’ allegations of unlawful discrimination and harassment in the workplace. The WESC has commented that it is “completely unacceptable that allegations of unlawful discrimination and harassment in the workplace are routinely covered up by employers with legally drafted NDAs”.

The recent case of Mart v Assessment Services Inc has brought the question of disability and medical treatment to the forefront once again. The Equality Act 2010 offers special protection to individuals who are disabled.

This is according to the recent EAT decision in Aston v The Marlet Group. The EAT dismissed the claimant’s victimisation claim, considering the law on the judicial proceedings immunity and paying particular attention to the Supreme Court decision in P v Commissioner of Police in the Metropolis.

In Furlong v Chief Constable of Cheshire Police an employment tribunal unanimously found that a police force’s recruitment process directly discriminated against a white, heterosexual, male applicant in the first decided case on the use of positive action under s.159 of the Equality Act 2010.

A former Oxford professor lost his Employment Tribunal claim against the University after it was held their employer-justified retirement age (EJRA) was justified. Oxford University introduced a retirement age of 67 for academics, and allowed applications for extensions only in exceptional circumstances, such as to maintain continuity in projects or to complete work.

We previously reported on the cases of Ali v Capita Customer Management Ltd and Hextall v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police which left us with competing judgments on whether a failure to increase statutory parental pay to match enhanced maternity pay would be discriminatory on the grounds of sex. We now have appellate authority from the Court of Appeal in these cases (which were joined).