News

Do you allow staff to use your computer systems for personal purposes like shopping or Facebook? Perhaps you allow this during lunch breaks, but recently a national law firm found that one of their employees had what they described as an, “unacceptable” level of personal internet use and this was her undoing. They dismissed her and the Liverpool Employment Tribunal agreed with them that their decision was reasonable.

Those of you who read the Cherington HR newsletter regularly may remember the case of a transgender woman who was awarded £47.5k for discriminatory behaviour by Primark employees a couple of years ago. (See https://cheringtonhr.com/news/428.) This time it was Debenhams who parted with £9k to settle a discrimination case brought by another transgender woman, who was told in an anonymous email that her job application had been rejected because of her gender identity.

Over the last few months I have been asked to deal with situations that have caused by, or resulted in, employees inappropriately expressing anger at work. I have had to deal with the fallout of individuals shouting at colleagues; furious outbursts; swearing at others; sulking; physical threats; temper tantrums including stamping of feet; sullen petulant behaviour and other dramatic expressions of feelings including petty retribution and manipulation. In short, these appear to be adults displaying typically childish playground behaviours, but in the workplace.

You will be aware that the National Living Wage (NLW), applying to all those aged 25 and over, is adjusted each April and this year is no different. In April 2020 it will increase from the current £8.21 to £8.72 per hour.

If you run a business that has a dress code requiring staff to have neatly trimmed hair and no facial hair, without a good reason (other than to look smart, for example) you could find yourself on the losing end of a claim of religious discrimination.

This happened to an employment agency in London who provided temporary staff for the hospitality industry, predominantly front of house food and beverage roles at five-star hotels. They cited health and safety issues with regards to food hygiene but did not check with their clients…