January 2022 - Didlaw

Cutting Sick Pay for Unvaccinated Staff – two tier policy

31 January 2022

Despite the government recently scrapping the guidance to work from home, the rules for isolation remain in place. Individuals in the UK who are not vaccinated are required to isolate for 10 days if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive. This requirement does not apply to those who are […]

Mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers: further regulations

28 January 2022

The beginning of January 2022 brought further updates to the regulations regarding mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers, more specifically care home workers. Workers in the wider health and social care sector whose role involves face-to-face contact with service users will also be subject to mandatory vaccination regulations from 1 April 2022. Care Homes Introduced by […]

Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme Re-introduced for SMEs

26 January 2022

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be able to recover up to two weeks’ statutory sick pay for each employee who is off work due to Covid-19 on or after 21 December 2021. The statutory sick pay rebate scheme will expire on 24 March 2022, which is the last date for claims to be submitted […]

Discrimination in recruitment

24 January 2022

New year, new job anyone? Beware of discrimination in recruitment! January is always an active month in recruitment. Combine the review of business needs with career themed new year’s resolutions and it’s no wonder there is such a flurry of activity at recruitment agencies and on Linkedin this month. The good news for workers is […]

Unlawful discrimination claim: Did a claimant’s fear of catching Covid-19 and need to protect others amount to a philosophical belief?

21 January 2022

No held the Employment Tribunal in X v Y. In this case, X is the employee and Y the employer. X informed Y that she would not return to the work on the grounds of health and safety. She stated that she had a genuine fear of catching Covid-19 and a fear of passing it […]

Determining employment status case: employee status denied to delivery drivers

20 January 2022

In Stojsavljevic and another v DPD Group UK Ltd, the EAT upheld the findings of an Employment Tribunal (ET) that delivery drivers engaged by the Respondent under ‘franchise agreements’ were neither employees or workers, and were instead independent contractors. This provides a good opportunity to remind ourselves of how the Tribunals go about determining employment […]

Police disability discrimination claim could be brought against the Chief Constable for discrimination by police misconduct panel: Eckland v CC of Avon and Somerset

19 January 2022

The Court of Appeal (CA) has found that a police officer could bring an Employment Tribunal claim against the Chief Constable of his force, for police disability discrimination in relation to his treatment by an independent police misconduct panel. The Claimant was a constable. He was investigated by the Independent Office for Police Misconduct for […]

Principle of vicarious liability and horseplay

18 January 2022

In the case of Chell v Tarmac Cement and Lime Ltd the Court of Appeal (CA) was asked to consider the question of whether an employer could be held liable for the actions of its employees when engaging in horseplay. Background The Appellant (C) was employed by Roltec Engineering Ltd (Roltec) as a Site Fitter. […]

Sexual orientation discrimination: European Court of Human Rights blows out candle on ‘gay cake case’

17 January 2022

It began in May 2014, when gay activist Gareth Lee placed an order for a custom cake with Ashers Baking Company (ABC) in Belfast which featured the slogan ‘support gay marriage’. ABC is owned by a Christian couple who cancelled the order on the grounds that making the cake would ‘contradict their religious belief’ that […]