The Employment Tribunal has ruled that a civil servant who was sacked after she looked up her neighbour’s private data on a government database was not unfairly dismissed. The case involved Louise Kelly, who said her behaviour had been caused by a lack of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Kelly had worked for the Department of
A GP’s receptionist has been awarded £45,000 after winning a discrimination claim over home working during the pandemic. The case involved Tracy Keown, who was classified as disabled due to her microvascular angina. She had worked at Staines Road Surgery since 2019 and was considered to be in the high-risk category during the pandemic. Her
The employment tribunal decision in Furlong v The Chief Constable of Cheshire Police reminds employers that the ‘tie-breaker’ exemption should not be used as a blanket policy to favour underrepresented groups with shared protected characteristics in a recruitment selection process. Doing so would amount to unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. In this case, a well-intentioned police
Often when a team of people decide to do business together they do so with people known to them whether it be family members, colleagues or friends. It is common to feel that formalising the business relationship legally is unnecessary as parties often find it difficult to imagine that these seemingly positive relationships could deteriorate
The number of firms going out of business or facing serious financial distress has risen sharply this year, according to the latest figures. The Insolvency Service says there were 5,629 corporate insolvencies in Q2, an increase of 12.7% compared to Q1’s figures of 4,995, and an increase of 81.3% compared to Q2 2021 (3,105). Meanwhile,
Constructive dismissal is where an employer has committed a serious breach of contract that the employee’s only option is to resign in response to the employer’s conduct. In order to bring a successful claim, the employee will need to show that: Their employer was in repudiatory breach of their employment contract; They resigned in response
An insurance company has been granted permission to transfer the management of three policies to Belgium so that they can be conducted in the European Economic Area (EEA) following Brexit. UK-based insurance policies are no longer able to exercise passporting rights to provide cross-border services and conduct business in the EEA following Britain’s exit from
Supermarket chain Tesco has successfully appealed an injunction that prevented it from terminating employees’ contracts in order to offer new contracts on less favourable terms. The issue goes back as far as 2007, when Tesco shut several distribution centres and opened new ones elsewhere in the country. The existing distribution staff were offered an enhanced
No-fault evictions are to be banned as part of government plans to “end the injustice of unfit homes and help protect renters from the rising cost of living”. The Fairer Private Rented Sector White Paper is designed to ensure millions of families benefit from living in decent, well looked-after homes as part of the biggest shake
The Renters Reform Bill is designed to drive up standards in the private and socially rented sector, but it will also make evictions easier for landlords in certain circumstances. The Bill is designed to help the 4.4 million households privately renting across England by extending the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for