Month: June 2021

cancer and employment

16 June 2021

It is a shocking reality that one in two of us are likely to get cancer at some stage in our lives. The good news is that survival rates are improving, but with people working to older ages, this has increasingly become an occupational concern.  The charity Macmillan has found that approximately 100,000 people of working […]

the right to disconnect

15 June 2021

The shift towards homeworking has many benefits – the time and cost saving by avoiding the commute and the ability to balance home and work life more easily, to name but a few.  One of the many disadvantages, however, relates to the blurring of the boundaries between home and work life.  Hands up who has […]

Tesco Value: An important Equal Pay decision

14 June 2021

On 3 June the Court of Justice of the European Union made a decision that is likely to prove pivotal, not only for the 6,000 Tesco employees who are pursuing equal pay claims against Tesco but to other supermarket employees pursuing similar claims against other retail giants.   The equal pay claim is based on […]

The Maya Forstater decision & what it means in the era of identity politics

11 June 2021

In what has been described in a landmark decision the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has today granted the appeal of a gender critical feminist in the case of Forstater v CGD Europe and others.  Ms Forstater was appealing against the 2018 decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET) which held that her belief that biological sex […]

Fire and Rehire can’t get a date

11 June 2021

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog titled “Fired. Rehired. Ignored” about the Government’s failure to take steps to address unscrupulous employer ‘fire and rehire’ tactics. This issue resurfaced in the Commons on 25 May 2021 when MPs questioned when the government intends to publish a report on fire and rehire tactics prepared by […]

Insecure Work – A Matter of Life and Death?

10 June 2021

There are approximately 3.7 million workers in the UK who the Trades Union Congress (TUC) class as being in some form of ‘insecure work’. This includes those who work on zero hours, casual and agency contracts but also those who are self-employed but whose earnings fall below the National Minimum Wage. Insecure Workers comprise around […]

When does an employee have sufficient connection with the UK to be able to bring a claim under its laws?

9 June 2021

This issue was considered in Partners Group (UK) Ltd v Mulumba (JURISDICTION) [2021] UKEAT 0237_20_2505 (25 May 2021) (bailii.org).  Here, Ms Mulumba, a national of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was employed by Partners Group Inc., a US company on its Associate Program under a contract governed by the laws of New York.  This stated […]

post lockdown return to the workplace – part 4: flexible working

8 June 2021

The roadmap easing us out of lockdown continues, despite concerns that the Indian variant may de-rail progress. We are now less than 3 weeks away from the date earmarked for all restrictions to be eased. Welcome to the fourth in the series of these didlaw blogs following us back to the workplace in the weeks […]

health and safety detriments – workers now offered protection

7 June 2021

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Protection from Detriment in Health and Safety Cases) (Amendment) Order 2021 (SI 2021/618) came into force on 31 May 2021. Previously section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 only gave protection to employees from being subjected to a detriment. However, following the High Court’s declaration in R (on the […]