DAC Beachcroft's Employment Matters focuses on some of the most interesting cases and events occurring within the Employment Law sector.
Case law developments this month include:
1. Discrimination: Protection from discrimination on the grounds of gender critical beliefs
The EAT has held that a gender critical belief, including a belief that sex is immutable and should not be conflated with gender identity, is a protected philosophical belief.
2. Discrimination: Women are less likely to be able to accommodate certain working patterns than men because of childcare responsibilities
A tribunal should have assumed, without needing evidence, that there is a “childcare disparity”, with women being less likely to accommodate some working patterns than men because of childcare responsibilities.
3. Industrial action: Protection from suffering a detriment for participating in industrial action
The lack of protection in UK legislation from suffering a detriment for participating in industrial action breaches the Human Rights Act.
4. Whistleblowing: Was the decision to dismiss materially influenced by whistleblowing disclosures?
The decision to dismiss a whistleblower was influenced entirely by his behaviour after he had blown the whistle. This behaviour was separate and distinct from the whistleblowing, and the dismissal was not automatically unfair.
5. Update on Government proposals
In 2019, the Government proposed several reforms to employment law which have been side-tracked by the pandemic. We have given an update on the status of these proposals.
