Employment Law Focus

50 years on from the Sex Discrimination Act, sexism is unfortunately still common at work. And yet studies repeatedly show that more diverse workplaces are more successful.

In this episode, we discuss questions like:

• Do workplace policies sustain gender stereotypes?
• Has the pandemic successfully de-coupled gender from flexible working?
• Will the UK government reform gender pay gap reporting this year?
• Does a holiday really allow for “rest and relaxation” if the employee is suffering from menopause symptoms, menstrual pain or undergoing early-stage IVF treatment?

We look at how gender equality issues are changing, and help HR and legal teams to navigate the risks, challenges and debates. We also highlight a story that considers: when is a sex discrimination case not a sex discrimination case?

As employers continue to face challenges with recruitment and retention, it’s more important than ever that they’re able to show a strong hand with regards to ESG and ED&I issues.

Useful links:

• Acas – Improving equality, diversity and inclusion
• The Fawcett Society – Menopause and the workplace
• TLT - Addressing menopause in the workplace

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or tweet us using #TLTemploymentpodcast or @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Can an employer really claim to have strong ESG credentials if they aren’t addressing societal issues like race equality and discrimination, and if they’re simply relying on policies and training?

How can employers meet the changing expectations of regulators, investors, employees, job candidates and clients?

The legal definition of race is much broader than many people realise. In this episode, Kanika Kitchlu-Connolly, co-chair of TLT’s BAME network, joins our employment team to discuss:

• Why this is so challenging but important for employers to get right
• The role of employee networks, from sharing information and lived experiences to raising issues, offering solutions, acting as a sounding board and holding employers to account
• The role of data, from helping employers to achieve their goals, to demonstrating what’s working, revealing barriers and defending claims
• Other ways to embed an anti-racism policy, from induction processes and exit interviews, to reverse mentoring and enabling people to become allies
• Complex legal issues, including those arising from “zero tolerance” policies, “banter”, harassment, indirect discrimination and positive discrimination

Our news update covers fire and rehire practices and the rights of agency staff.

Further reading:

• Acas: fire and rehire practices
• BITC: Race at Work Charter
• Rare Recruitment: Race Fairness Commitment
• EHRC: using positive action to address workplace disadvantage

Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Returns to work are set to become even more challenging with the advent of hybrid and remote working, to the extent that the traditional toolkit may no longer be fit for purpose.

In this episode, our employment and regulatory teams discuss five new challenges for HR and legal teams, and share their insights and advice surrounding:

• Occupational stress
• Supervision and performance management
• Personal injury
• Training and career development
• Long Covid

There are some recurring themes, including:

• The risk that employers underestimate their legal obligations;
• The need to think about the individual employee and take a tailored approach;
• The importance of effective employee communications; and
• Maintaining a complete record of steps taken to support employees and minimise health and safety and other risks.

Our listener question addresses the timely topic of mandatory vaccinations at work, and what we’ve been seeing and advising clients.

Useful link: HSE guidance on home working

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

After Me Too and Black Lives Matter, there are growing signs that disability could be the next recipient of a major social media movement, not to mention new legal duties for employers.

In the UK, the government has published a new National Disability Strategy including mandatory reporting for employers, the employment gap is impossible to ignore, and the Tokyo Paralympics sparked the campaign WeThe15 representing the world’s 1.2 billion people with a disability.

But are employers ready for this? Disability varies wildly from other areas of equality law, and as PageGroup CEO and disability rights champion Steve Ingham recently said, many employers simply think: “It’s too complex an issue to grapple with” and therefore don’t engage.

We discuss:

• Why this is such a complex area of employment law, and why employers should act now
• The merits of pay gap reporting and quotas, but more importantly, the need for an inclusive workplace culture
• Employer attitudes when deciding what is/is not a disability
• The different types of disability discrimination and knowledge tests
• The tricky business of using medical reports

We also explain cases covering:

• Concealment of a disability
• Assuming the knowledge of your agents
• “Reasonable” adjustments including cost

Our listener question looks at four-day working weeks and what employers should consider when defining the scope of a trial.

Useful link: EHRC Code of Practice

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

In the latest episode of our Employment Law focus podcast, Partner, Jonathan Rennie, and Knowledge Lawyer, Victoria Wenn, discuss the recent reforms to flexible working regulations that took effect on 6th April 2024.

Also covered are the legal and practical implications of adopting a four-day working week, something that has been introduced in several other countries, with pilots taking place in the UK already with some success.

This episode​​​​​​​ looks at:

• The 6th of April reforms to flexible working requests, what this means for employers, and employees.
• What employers need to consider before denying a flexible working request.
• A review of ‘Wilson v FCA’, one of the first cases to consider a flexible working request to work remotely post pandemic.
• The four-day working week from an employment law perspective, with part time workers, contracts, and holiday allowance all likely to be affected.
• Plus, a discussion on ‘Manjang v Uber Eats’, and how AI poses the potential for discrimination in automated decision making.