Employment Bulletin - July 2018

This month’s bulletin includes the following articles​:

• Written warning for long period of sickness absence held to be disability discrimination
• Increase in employment tribunal claims
• Senior staff found guilty of opting workers out of workplace pension
• Here to Paternity
• New guidance on overtime issued by Acas
• Can an allegation amount to a protected disclosure?
• Disqualification by association rules no longer apply to schools

Written warning for long period of sickness absence held to be disability discrimination

The EAT recently confirmed in DL Insurance Services Ltd v O'Connor that a 12-month written warning for 60 days’ sickness absence was discriminatory on the grounds of an employee’s disability. The employer was unable to show that the written warning, which arose in consequence of the employee’s disability, was a proportionate means to achieving a legitimate aim.

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Increase in employment tribunal claims

We have been monitoring the impact surrounding the abolition of employment tribunal fees. We recently reported on the increase of employment tribunal claims in March earlier this year.

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Senior staff found guilty of opting workers out of workplace pension

Senior staff members at a national recruitment agency have been found guilty by the Pensions Regulator of illegally impersonating their temporary workers in order to opt them out of their workplace pension scheme. By doing so, the agency effectively rid itself of the responsibility to pay any pension contributions towards the workers.

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Here to Paternity

The Government was accused last month of failing new fathers after offering a ‘lukewarm’ response to a report on the subject published earlier this year by the Women and Equalities Committee.

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New guidance on overtime issued by Acas

Acas has issued new guidance on overtime. The guidance is summarised in this article. Overtime is generally considered to be additional hours an employee works outside the hours s/he is usually required to work. This may be offered to employees so an employer can cope with an increase in demand, for example, a retailer may offer overtime to its employees during the Christmas period.

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Can an allegation amount to a protected disclosure?

The question of whether an allegation amounted to a protected disclosure was recently considered by the Court of Appeal in the case of Kilraine v London Borough of Wandsworth. A disclosure constitutes a ‘protected disclosure’ if it contains information which, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, falls under one or more of the categories of wrongdoing specified by statute.

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Disqualification by association rules no longer apply to schools

The rules concerning disqualification by association will change dramatically on 31 August 2018. Schools will be subject to The Childcare (Disqualification) Regulations 2009 up until this date, which provide that individuals are disqualified if they live in the same household as another person who is disqualified from registration; or if they live in a household in which any such person is employed.

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