Blog
From garage to unicorn – Employment law lessons for scaling tech teams
Catherine Bourne
30 October 2014
Legal update: What happens if a Tribunal member falls asleep on the job?
This is exactly the question the EAT considered recently in Elys and Marks and Spencer plc.
The Claimant, Mrs Elys (who had lost her case in the Tribunal) appealed the Tribunal decision on the ground of procedural irregularity, stating that one of the Tribunal members had not paid sufficient attention as he had appeared to be asleep during the three week hearing. There had been one particular incident which lasted 15-20 seconds, where the Tribunal member was actually seen “drooling” and needed to be nudged awake by the judge.
30 October 2014
Legal update: Can employers be responsible for the discriminatory effect of their income replacement policy?
Hall v Xerox UK Limited
Can an employer incur liability if their income replacement policy (in this case effected with Unum to cover employees’ salaries in the event they are struck down by ill health and therefore off work for more than 26 weeks) potentially has a discriminatory effect, against one of their fixed term employees?
30 October 2014
Legal update: Employee’s prior repudiatory breach of contract did not prevent him from being entitled to bring a constructive dismissal claim
In Atkinson v Community Gateway Association the EAT held that an employee was not barred by his own prior repudiatory breach of his employment contract from bringing a constructive unfair dismissal claim. However, the EAT further held that if the employer could show that it would have fairly dismissed the employee, if it had known about the prior breach, then compensation could be reduced by up to 100%.
28 October 2014
Employment Tribunal user group meeting in Watford - Another step forward?
Sometimes you have just got to be there. In this case at a new style Employment Tribunal Users’ meeting.
These meetings very nearly fell by the wayside. ELA became involved in order to try and generate more enthusiasm for them. I should declare an interest in that respect, as I was Chair of ELA at the time. Certainly, we do seem to have played our part in what to my mind, has been a quite remarkable turnaround with respect to these meetings.
22 October 2014
Drug testing in the workplace - the difficulties for employers
Recent reports suggest that since 2010, the number of UK employers conducting workplace drug testing has increased by up to 470%. Drug testing has traditionally been limited to safety critical roles. However, it is becoming more common across a wider variety of sectors (such as retail, professional and financial services). According to the latest Global Drug Survey, within the last 12 months 20% of British respondents have gone to work whilst coming down from drugs. It is hardly surprising then, that businesses are upping the ante.
This blog first appeared as an article in HR Magazine in October 2014.
