It won't have escaped readers that if Labour win the General Election they say significant employment law reform will follow. We'll be looking at what the parties have promised in our webinar on 25 June. For further details please see here and to sign up please use the link below.
A separate alert will also follow in which we look at the main political parties plans for employment law reform.
1. Legislative changes: Legislation passed ahead of Parliament's dissolution
Some outstanding employment law reforms completed their passage through Parliament ahead of its dissolution following the announcement of the General Election. Should there be a change of Government it is now clear that a number of Conservative proposals are unlikely to see the light of day.
2. Worker status: A volunteer can be a worker when attending activities for which they were entitled to remuneration
In this case a volunteer in the Coastal Rescue Service successfully appealed against the Employment Tribunal's decision that he was not a worker and therefore not entitled to be accompanied by a trade union representative at a disciplinary hearing.
3. Constructive dismissal: Decision to divest Clinical Director of responsibilities and create new role was not permitted by contract and a repudiatory breach
In this case the High Court decided that a decision by a new CEO to divest a Director of some of her responsibilities by transferring them to other employees and from an unidentified date in the future allocate her a new role were not properly taken in the exercise of the Board's powers as required by clause 2.5 of her contract of employment.
4. Disability discrimination: Employer did not have actual or constructive knowledge of a former employee's Asperger's syndrome from his former employment
Whether an employer has knowledge of a disability is one of the gateways to protection from disability discrimination. In this case the EAT upheld a tribunal decision that the employer did not have knowledge from the behaviours the job applicant displayed when he was previously employed by the Respondent.
5. Sexual harassment/culture: HM Treasury, PRA and FCA have responded to the Treasury Committee's recommendations set out in its Sexism in the City Inquiry report published on 8 March 2024.
On 14 May 2024 the House of Commons Treasury Committee published responses from HM Treasury, the PRA and the FCA to the recommendations in its report following its "Sexism in the City" Inquiry.
