Employment Law Update

Welcome

The Summer season brings with it silly season stories and one in particular this year involved a criminal case presided over by Judge Patricia Lynch QC. The criminal was (accurately) described by the judge as a vile racist. Firstly, when you’re being sentenced commonsense would seem to dictate that insulting the Judge in a most disgusting manner is not advisable. Secondly, any degree of intelligence would inform you that any sympathy the Judge may have for you would quickly dissipate in those circumstances. The criminal, untroubled by either of these two attributes, ploughed on regardless. The unusual circumstances in this case were that the Judge reciprocated in kind. Twice. I’m unable to provide you with the transcript for fear of falling foul of that most heinous of crimes in the 21st Century – causing offence. Instead I can provide you with a link to the Daily Mirror article in which the scene is described in graphic detail. You should only click on it if you have a strong constitution and, more importantly, are not going to send me complaints (all complaints should be sent to the Lord Chancellor’s office – sadly, I believe you will have to join a queue):

WARNING – link to Mirror article

On with the news and this week we have an interesting, and useful case for those who deal with disciplinary proceedings.

Can Aggregated Misconduct Amount to a Fair Reason to Dismiss Without Warning?

In the recent decision in Ham v Governing Body of Beardwood Humanities College, it was found that there could be a fair dismissal where separate acts of misconduct amounted to gross misconduct when looked at in the aggregate.

Ms Ham (the Claimant) was employed by Beardwood Humanities College. She was summarily dismissed in 2011 by reason of four separate acts of misconduct as follows: failure to follow management requests; failure to follow health and safety regulations; communicating in an “unreasonable and intimidating way”, both orally and in writing; and unreasonable and uncooperative behaviour with work colleagues. The employer knew at the time that, when considered individually, the acts were not recognised as gross misconduct. But taken together, they believed them to amount to gross misconduct.

Read more about aggregated misconduct dismissals here.

Brexit – Here’s the Employment Law Implications

The choice is made, the people have spoken – it’s Brexit! Many employers and employees want to know what the likely changes will be to employment law now that Britain is leaving the European Union.

It’s going to take a few years for Britain to extricate itself from Europe but once this happens, in theory, the Government could rip up all of the current employment law and start again un-hampered by the so-called “bureaucrats in Brussels”. Of course, this is extremely improbable and the consequences are likely to be far less dramatic.

Read more about the employment law implications here.

Amy Shaw’s Interview With BBC Radio Solent

DC Employment’s Solicitor Amy Shaw speaks to BBC Radio Solent about the problems pregnant women face in employment. She says “today’s MPs report saying pregnant women face an unacceptable level of discrimination comes as no surprise. The Women and Equalities Committee report shows a shocking increase in discrimination over the last decade.”

Listen to Amy Shaw’s Interview with BBC Radio Solent here.

Breakfast Briefing – 6th October

DC Employment Solicitors is pleased to invite you to our FREE Employment Law Breakfast Briefing on Thursday 6th October at 8am. The subject of staff welfare and workplace absence is an often complex and sensitive topic. To help you get to grips with it, DC Employment Solicitors’ partner, Laurence Dunn, will explore the various legal issues and case law related to the topic.

For more information and to book your tickets, click here.

Any Finally…

I don’t really understand the Pokemon Go phenomenon but in common with all our national newspapers it’s not going to prevent me from offering up an opinion on it. While it’s obviously a (what used to be called) craze that will die its own natural death in due course, clearly employers need to be very frightened by it and take immediate (over re) action. For the uninformed, I’m the last person who should be trying to enlighten you but as far as I can tell it involves people using their mobile phones to ‘capture’ imaginary creatures (if I have that wrong please feel free not to correct me). The internet is rife with guidance as to how Pokemon Go users can avoid getting fired. Such guidance includes:

1. If you find a Pokemon on or near your boss, try to ignore it; and,
2. Volunteer to run errands for your co-workers to hunt for Pokemon.

A major US airline has allegedly sent out a company-wide memo announcing that employees are banned from playing the game at work due to “a near miss for a user getting hurt while playing the game” whilst another employer apparently issued an employee with a warning stating, “We are paying you to work, not chase fictional video game characters with your cell phone all day. Save it for your break time or lunch. Otherwise you’ll have plenty of time unemployed to catch them all”…