DMH Stallard Employment Law Updates

Employers duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees

An employer is generally under a duty to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled employee under Section 20 of the Equality Act, if they know or ought to reasonably know, that the individual in question is disabled and likely to be placed at a substantial disadvantage because of their disability.
In this podcast, our employment experts look at the issues that employers need to consider and how far they need to go to make reasonable adjustments in the workplace to accommodate a disabled employee.Hosted by Partner and Head of Employment, Rustom Tata, with employment solicitor Lydia Goodman joining the discussion to share their expert insights and provide practical tips for employers and HR managers. 

10 faux pas when dealing with misconduct issues in the workplace

Employers often have to deal with situations where an employee has committed acts of, or is facing allegations of, misconduct and there is the potential for a lot to go wrong. It is important that the employer gets the process right when dealing with issues of misconduct as the consequence of failing to do so can be damaging to the employer and could lead to them facing unfair dismissal claims, reputational damage and high settlement costs.
In this latest podcast, we consider 10 common pitfalls made by employers when dealing with misconduct and how best to avoid them.
Hosted by Partner and Head of Employment, Rustom Tata, with employment experts Hollie Ryan and Eloise Brennan joining the discussion to share their expert insights and provide practical tips for HR professionals.

Conflict in protected characteristics

Conflicts arising in respect of different protected characteristics have come to the fore in a number of recent high profile cases, particular in the context of sex, sexual orientation and gender critical beliefs.
In this podcast, we discuss recent cases in this area, including Higgs v Farmor’s School and Maya Forstater v CGD Europe. An area which is also a cause for concern is the difficulties employers have in policing workplace conversations and adopting a zero tolerance approach to conversations that may cause offence to others.
The sensitivities surrounding many of the reported employment tribunal cases have led to mainstream news headlines and perhaps this is one of the reasons that employees are becoming much more aware of their rights to voice their views and the potential limitations on employers to limit discussions and moderate behaviours.
Conduct of employees causing offence to others is often dealt with by disciplinary action but since the Equality Act introduced religion or belief as a protected characteristic in 2003 employers have had to be mindful that any disciplinary action or other treatment does not amount to discrimination based on that individual holding that protected belief. Initially most cases focused on religion as the definition of “belief” was less clear.
Speakers for this episode include Employment Partners, Rebecca Thornley-Gibson and Rustom Tata.

Serial litigants in the workplace - how to spot employment claims early

Employees, workers, and even job applicants are becoming more and more aware of their employment rights and how to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunals. With this, we are seeing a growing number of serial litigants, who seek employment with the primary purpose of creating disruption and subsequently lodging an Employment Tribunal claim.
No organisation is immune, and even small start ups and charities can find themselves as respondents to baseless litigation. Employment Tribunals appear to be showing an increasing level of patience with litigants in person: they are very anxious not to be perceived as barring access to justice. As such, litigants in person – including serial litigants - are given significant support during the tribunal process. 
Hosted by Partner and Head of Employment, Rustom Tata, with speakers Simon Bellm and Lydia Goodman joining the discussion to share their expert insights and provide practical tips for business owners and HR teams when recruiting new employees. 

Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace

In this latest podcast, our employment law experts discuss the new laws, introduced in October 2024, which places a positive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of its employees in the workplace. These laws mean that if an employee is sexually harassed, and the employer has failed to take reasonable steps to prevent that from happening, any compensation can then be increased by up to 25%.
So what steps should employers be taking to protect their business from sexual harassment claims?
Hosted by Employment Partner, Rustom Tata, with Employment Partner Will Walsh joining the discussion as a speaker.
 

Without prejudice and protected conversation - when might an employer want to use it?

In this latest episode, our employment law experts look at without prejudice and protected conversations and when they might be used by an employer. 
These are used in all sorts of situations by employers. It might be used in situations where there’s a grievance causing a breakdown in relationship with the employee. There might be performance issues, a redundancy situation, long-term sick leave, or even for misconduct where the employer is not sure whether there's enough to justify a summary dismissal. 
Hosted by Rustom Tata, Partner and Head of Employment, with Greg Burgess, Partner in Employment, joining the discussion as a speaker.

Legislative changes to the Employment Rights Bill – what might happen and when?

In this latest podcast, our employment experts examine the recent changes to the Employment Rights Bill under the new Labour government and how these changes might impact businesses and HR teams. It’s fair to say that this piece of legislation will be one of the most significant developments shaping the employment sphere over the next decade. 
Hosted by Partner and Head of Employment, Rustom Tata, with speakers Greg Burgess and Rebecca Thornley-Gibson joining the discussion to provide their expert insights into some of the key points and major developments under the new reforms.

Employment Law highlights from 2024 and looking ahead to 2025

In this latest episode, our expert Employment lawyers take a look back over important changes and key developments in the law that we saw in 2024, and can still expect to see in 2025.
Our experts also look through the key employment law cases of the last 12 months and the cases of note going through the tribunals and courts in 2025. We also provide an update on legislation not just from the Labour government’s plans, but other changes HR managers and employers need to look out for.
Review of Employment cases from 2024
Disciplinary Processes: Weir -v- Citigroup Global Markets Ltd
Googling Candidates: Ngole -v- Touchstone Leeds
Serial Complainants: Hope –v- British Medical Association
Holiday Pay: De Mello -v- British Airways PLC
Guidance on proportionality in belief / freedom of expression cases: Higgs -v- Farmor’s School
Agency Workers: Donkor-Baah -v- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust and ors
Redundancy: Maternity Leave: Carnival Plc (ta Carnival UK) -v- Hunter
Key employment legislation from 2024
Annual Leave and Holiday Pay (from 1st January 2024)
Flexible working (from 6th April 2024)
Fire and Rehire (from 18th July 2024)
Reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment (from 26th October 2024)
Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond
Employment Rights Bill: Unfair Dismissal
Unfair dismissal: Ongoing consultation
Flexible working changes
Prevention of sexual harassment
Trade Unions
Fire and rehire
Bereavement leave
Parental leave and paternity leave
Pregnant / maternity returners
Speakers in this podcast episode include Employment Partners Greg Burgess and Will Walsh for DMH Stallard LLP. 

Discrimination and religious beliefs – case of Higgs v Farmor's School

In this latest podcast, our employment law experts discuss the developments in discrimination following the recent Court of Appeal decision in Higgs v Farmor's School.
This case highlights the challenge for employers of balancing staff’s competing protected characteristics under the Equality Act. In this case, the way that Mrs Higgs expressed her Christian beliefs in Facebook posts led to her dismissal from her role at Farmor’s School, where she had worked for a number of years.
Mrs Higgs then brought a claim alleging her dismissal was discriminatory as she said it was because of her religion and beliefs. But did the Courts agree?
Our speakers for this podcast include employment partners Rustom Tata and Greg Burgess.

Right to work checks and illegal working in the digital age

Illegal working is big business, not only in terms of the sums made by those who facilitate it, but also in the penalties that are issued to employers (in the year to March 2024 employers were issued with fines totally £8m).
The Home Office's guidance in this area changes regularly, partly to reflect changes in the immigration rules, but also to try to keep pace with the changing landscape of illegal working. This makes it so important for employers to stay on top of their compliance processes. Rapid advances in modern technology create new opportunities for illegal workers to find their way into an organisation under false pretences which increases the risk of businesses unwittingly becoming exposed to non-compliance and hefty fines.  In this episode, we will be looking at how employers can stay up to date and adopt the robust procedures needed to manage these threats, whilst at the same time ensuring that the issue doesn't become so burdensome that it undermines operational efficiency. 
How can an employer balance out these competing risks? Can the advances in technology support the prevention of illegal working and mitigate the risks for employers? Hosted by Immigration and Employment expert Adam Williams, with our guest speakers for this episode including Julia Terry (HR director for Tenpin), and Tony Machin (CEO at leading provider of identity verification services, TrustID).