Is telling an employee to ‘man up’ sex discrimination?

Facts In Woods v NHS Property Services Limited, a male employee who was told to ‘man up’ when he complained about being punched by a female colleague complained about sex discrimination. In January 2020 Mr Woods raised a grievance about a female colleague who had punched him three times. The grievance outcome partially upheld the…

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Schools and colleges: take care when giving references

Employers who provide references for their staff members must take reasonable care to ensure the information disclosed is true, accurate and fair. Schools and colleges also have to include any safeguarding concerns and whether they have subjected the employee to a formal capability procedure. In Smith v Surridge and others, the High Court had to…

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A new right to predictable Ts and Cs

The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill introduces a statutory right for workers and agency workers to request predictable terms and conditions of work. It is currently progressing through the Houses of Parliament, so its content may be subject to change. Background The Taylor Review of Modern Workplaces recommended that the government take steps to…

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Menopause in the workplace

The government has responded to the Women and Equalities Committee’s Menopause and the workplace report. As health is a devolved matter, the response outlines the government’s approach and actions in England only. A new protected characteristic of menopause The government rejected the recommendation to launch a consultation on making menopause a protected characteristic. While the…

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McDonald’s has signed an agreement with the EHRC to protect its staff from sexual harassment

McDonalds has reached a binding agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to eliminate sexual harassment in its restaurants. It has agreed: to communicate a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment to conduct an anonymous survey of workers about workplace safety to enhance policies and procedures to prevent sexual harassment and improve responses to…

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Disability discrimination: adjusting the redundancy selection process

In Jandu v Marks and Spencer plc, an employment tribunal ordered M&S to pay the claimant over £50,000 for breaching its duty to make reasonable adjustments. It failed to discount any disability-related effects when assessing the employee against the redundancy selection criteria. What happened? Ms Jandu, a clothing and home planner, has dyslexia. Her managers…

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