Blog
From garage to unicorn – Employment law lessons for scaling tech teams
Catherine Bourne
11 March 2015
Legal update: Reason for dismissal – clarity is vital
Robinson v Combat Stress
The case of Robinson v Combat Stress shows the need for an employer, when it dismisses an employee as a result of a number of separate incidents, to be entirely clear about the reason for the dismissal.
11 March 2015
Legal update: What constitutes a reasonable adjustment for a service provider to make to avoid disadvantaging a disabled person?
First Group plc v Doug Paulley
The Court of Appeal held that in order to answer this question, rather than focusing on the existing policy which is being challenged (as many legal advisers do) (i.e. in this case asking, but not compelling non-wheelchair users to vacate the wheelchair space on a bus), instead the correct legal approach is to identify the base position or raw policy, with any adjustments that have already been made to the policy to accommodate disabled persons being stripped out. The base policy which should have been challenged in this case by Mr Paulley should have been First Group’s “first come first served” policy with regards to use of the wheelchair space on its buses.
29 January 2015
Legal update - Injury to feelings payments are taxable if they arise out of the termination of employment
A recent case (Moorthy v HMRC) has reminded us of the correct tax treatment of termination payments. A payment for discrimination and/or injury to feelings was taxable as a termination payment because the payment was made in connection with the termination of Mr Moorthy’s employment. This case teaches us that if a compensation payment is going to be made, and it is not intended to be compensation for the termination of the employment, then in order to give the best possible chance of ensuring that this does not fall within a charge to income tax, the reason for the payment should be expressly stated and a separate amount allocated to this.
29 January 2015
Legal update - Providing consideration for the imposition of additional restrictive covenants on existing employees
Re-use Collections Limited v Keith Sendell and May Glass Recycling
We have had an important decision on the question of providing consideration for the imposition of additional restrictive covenants on employees.
29 January 2015
Legal update - Is it unlawful for employers to discriminate on the grounds of obesity?
The recent ECJ ruling in the Danish case of Kaltoft v Municipality of Billund held that there is no general principle of EU law prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of obesity. This is consistent with the Advocate General’s earlier opinion (for a summary of that opinion, please visit my blog, Obestity based discrimination – a growing problem.