Case Reports

The law does not require a formal mental health diagnosis to have been made for stress to be a disability, as long as the condition meets the definition of a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

Where a resignation has been clearly and unequivocally given, and the employer deems it to have been seriously meant, it is not necessary to allow it to be retracted to avoid an unfair dismissal claim.

The Supreme Court has upheld the Court of Appeal’s judgment that permanent staff who only work part of the year, such as term-time workers, should get a full 5.6 weeks of annual leave a year, with pay calculated over a 52-week average, rather than on a basis of 12.07%. The same principles apply to those on a zero-hours, variable hours or casual contract.

Where a particular work requirement triggers a mental impairment but that work requirement is not necessarily a day-to-day activity, if the employee is unable to return unless it is removed, does this mean they are disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010?

When an employee has agreed to the mutual termination of their employment, an employer’s final confirmation letter stating “dismissal” will not change that agreement, so long as evidence shows that the employee freely consented and was fully informed about that termination.

Creative accounting arrangements that permitted a bespoke pay cut arrangement favouring male over female managers can be both discriminatory and contrary to the law on equal pay.

Failing to put into place adequate support for a transitioning employee, resulting in deadnaming and less favourable treatment from those within and external to the organisation, can amount to direct discrimination by reason of gender reassignment.

The employment tribunal had to consider whether the reasons for the claimant’s refusal to wear a Covid mask amounted to a philosophical belief.

The refusal of suitable alternative employment during redundancy removes the need to pay statutory redundancy pay; this cannot be restored post-dismissal if the employee changes their mind.

Does a tribunal’s failure to properly consider employees’ human rights and the balance of those rights against an employer’s aims, where those aims have the potential to infringe on their human rights, make its dismissal of unfair dismissal claims wrong in law?