Legal News

(1) Bicknell (2) The British Medical Association v NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Commissioning Board [2024] EAT 103 The Employment Appeal Tribunal ( EAT), in [2024] EAT 103, held that the employment tribunal had been entitled to find that GP clinical lead Marcus Bicknell could not invoke the Transfer of Undertakings ( Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/246 ( TUPE). He was therefore unable to rely on TUPE in challenging his dismissal from NHS Nottingham City Commissioning Group as part of his claim......

Parliamentary process On 22 May 2024, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, asked the King to dissolve Parliament so a general election could take place on 4 July 2024, and the King consented. As a result, Parliament was prorogued on 24 May 2024 and formally dissolved on 30 May 2024. The parliamentary timetable is set out below: 22 May: The Prime Minister asked the King to use the prerogative to dissolve Parliament 22 May: King Charles approved the request and a general election was announced nationwide 23 May: ‘ Wash-up’ period begins 24 May: Parliament is prorogued 25 May: Pre-election period of sensitivity begins (previously known as ‘purdah’) 30 May: Parliament is dissolved 30 May: Pre-election period starts 4 July: General election 17 July: State Opening of Parliament For an explanation of the ‘wash-up’ period and the period of...

Prospect v Evans [2024] EWHC 1533 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? Since the decision in Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union v Times Newspapers Ltd [1980] 1 QB 585 concluded that trade unions could not sue for libel, doubts persisted about whether it was rightly decided. This judgment clarifies that trade unions can, in fact, bring defamation proceedings. It remains the position that certain organisations, including local authorities and unincorporated bodies, are still unable to pursue a defamation action. What was the background? Prospect, a trade union, issued claims for defamation and malicious falsehood against Mr Andrew Evans ( E), who was a member at the time of publication but is now a former member. E sought a declaration that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the defamation claim on the basis that the claimant union had no standing to sue in...

In this issue: Employment tribunals Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Employees’ rights to be informed and consulted Immigration Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Employment tribunals Tribunals should focus on delay for late response and for application to extend time In Thorney Golf Centre Ltd v (1) Reed (2) Reed [2024] EAT 96, the EAT stated that, when assessing whether to allow extra time for a late response, the first consideration regarding delay should be how long it took to submit the response and/or, if later, to seek an extension. Additional time that unavoidably passes before a judge decides the application will not generally be pivotal to the outcome, though it may not be wholly irrelevant in all circumstances. The EAT also concluded it was proper for the employment tribunal to decline the...

Thorney Golf Centre Ltd v (1) Reed, (2) Reed [2024] EAT 96 What are the practical implications of this judgment? This case involved a very substantial delay—over two years—between the respondent requesting an extension of time to file its response and the employment tribunal’s hearing to decide that request. In his judgment, His Honour Judge Auerbach stated that the tribunal should have concentrated chiefly on the period up to the submission of the response and the extension application, and on any prejudice arising from that specific delay, rather than treating the respondent as accountable for the entire lapse until the tribunal hearing took place... Practitioners should note this clarification of the Kwik Save test when advancing or opposing applications for additional time. The judgment also addresses the degree to which the respondent could take part in the hearing of the substantive claim once its...

Employment Appeal Judge Timothy Kerr formally confirmed an earlier decision that the move by Timothy Clayson, Andrew Woolman and David Griffith‑ Jones KC from serving as part‑time recorders to sitting as circuit judges amounted to a distinct judicial post. He held this allowed the ministry to enrol them in a fresh statutory pension arrangement and to refuse entry to the earlier, more advantageous scheme. “ I do not consider the judge’s analysis defective,” the appeal judge stated. “ The claimants’ resentment is easy to appreciate, yet I consider the judge correctly concluded that the way they were treated regarding pension rights was…not attributable to their prior part‑time work as recorders before becoming circuit judges.” Under the Judicial Pensions and Recruitment Act 1993, where a recorder stopped holding the former office and undertook a new judicial appointment after the close of March 1995, they would be...

The British Council v Beldica [2024] EAT 92 On 24 June 2024, the EAT determined that the Employment Tribunal’s ( ET) ruling allowing human resources manager Ana- Maria Beldica to have her case against her employer, the British Council, heard in the UK had to be set aside because it relied on ‘hypothetical’ reasoning. The tribunal at first instance had endorsed Beldica’s position that she could bring her claim before the UK’s courts, notwithstanding that she worked for the British Council in Dubai, on the basis that there was a risk she would not receive a fair trial in the UAE. That conclusion was founded on the suggestion that the British Council might advance a plea of state immunity which, in turn, would deprive her of a fair hearing......

Boohene & Ors v The Royal Parks Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 583 On 24 May 2024, the Court of Appeal delivered a significant ruling on the reach of contract worker discrimination. Sixteen contract workers providing services for The Royal Parks ( TRP) under an agreement between TRP and Vinci, a major outsourcing company, brought the claim. The claimants said TRP applied a provision, criterion or practice ( PCP) of paying its own employees the London Living Wage ( LLW), yet did not require its contract workers to receive the LLW. They maintained that TRP’s stance favoured its own staff over contractors. They alleged this was indirectly discriminatory on the ground of race, as advanced in their case. The Court of Appeal dismissed the workers’ appeal; more critically, it also decided that a claim for contract worker discrimination cannot be advanced where the alleged...

In this issue: Horizon scanning Labour manifesto—principal immigration policies Green Party manifesto—headline employment pledges Status and categories of workers Cross-border, international and jurisdictional matters Prohibited behaviour Employee grievances Redundancy Immigration Scotland— Public Sector Equality Duty Daily and weekly news alerts IRLR highlights— July 2024 Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Horizon scanning Labour manifesto—key employment pledges The Labour Party has released its manifesto ahead of the General Election scheduled for 4 July 2024......

Stanley v The Village Bakery ( Wrexham) Ltd Case Number: 1602387/2023 Employment Judge Rhian Brace determined that the Wrexham arm of the Village Bakery discriminated against the claimant, I. Stanley, on the grounds of disability, as he is registered blind, when it chose to dismiss him six weeks into his probationary term, according to the decision. Judge Brace wrote: ' We concluded that the respondent had dismissed the claimant, a disabled worker, without making the reasonable adjustment of allowing the claimant further time, paired with a support buddy, and by improving staff awareness of the claimant's disability and requirements'. The tribunal held that, had those measures been implemented by the bakery, Stanley would have remained in employment, the decision said on this point......

The proposed rises were first unveiled in December 2023, leaving impacted firms with very little time to adapt in relation to current and prospective job applicants. Positions with lengthier recruitment processes, such as graduate schemes that operate on an annual cycle, proved the hardest hit, as illustrated by HSBC Holdings plc; the Financial Times reported in May that job offers to overseas graduates were withdrawn. In March 2024, the government suggested any major effects were likely to be indirect, stemming from business decisions about how to respond to these changes. Yet is it reasonable to shift the blame onto employers? Many maintain they cannot raise pay to the markedly higher threshold without clear commercial justification. Such moves could result in some staff being paid far more than direct comparators, prompting unrest among employees and possible discrimination claims. Raised minimum thresholds for the so‑called going rates of...

Lobo v University College London Hospitals NHS Trust [2025] IRLR 192 ( EAT) Employment Appeal Tribunal Judge James Tayler affirmed a lower tribunal’s conclusion that the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was not obliged to confer permanent employee status on consultant breast surgeon Cheryl Lobo, despite her four years on fixed-term arrangements. In his judgment, Tayler J indicated there was no error of law in the Employment Tribunal’s approach to assessing whether the respondent’s decision to keep the claimant on a fixed-term contract, pending appointment to the substantive post, was objectively justified. Lobo had been working part-time as a locum consultant breast surgeon at the NHS trust for more than four years when, in 2021, she sought appointment to the role of consultant on a permanent basis......

Camacho v OCS Group UK Ltd [2024] EWHC 1164 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling emphasises the need for exact drafting in contracts and workplace policies and procedures. In this matter, neither the employment contract nor the grievance process made it express that staff agreed to any re-publication of defamatory statements arising during grievance investigations. The court likewise observed that the grievance procedure’s core function is to resolve complaints and does not necessarily, of itself, inaugurate disciplinary proceedings. Advisers should counsel employers with care and precision to ensure their contracts and policies plainly and transparently define the reach and effects of these internal procedures where potentially defamatory allegations may surface or be repeated. The court also confirmed that the principles in Friend v Civil Aviation Authority [1998] IRLR 253 have only a limited application to the consent defence in...

In this issue: Horizon scanning Cross-border, international and jurisdictional issues Corporate governance Tax Performance, conduct and discipline Confidentiality, duties and restrictions: enforcement Settlement Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Horizon scanning Horizon scanning Conservative Manifesto— Key Employment announcements The Conservative and Unionist Party has released its manifesto ahead of the General Election on 4 July 2024. It outlines several proposals for working people that the Conservatives plan to bring forward if re-elected, including: a further 2p reduction in employee National Insurance amending the Equality Act 2010 ( Eq A 2010) to define sex as biological sex a pledge to keep the National Living Wage at two-thirds of median earnings during their next government a pledge not to increase income tax or VAT a...

Clifford v IBM United Kingdom Ltd [2024] EAT 90 What are the practical implications of this case? Settlement agreements are the staple of employment practitioners, so it is crucial to be clear about which claims they can legitimately waive. Considerable doubt has persisted over whether prospective claims—those not yet arisen and unknown to the parties at signing—can, with careful wording, be effectively released within a settlement. In Bathgate, the Court of Session determined that such future claims could indeed be compromised, provided the categories of claim were clearly specified in the agreement. Nonetheless, uncertainty remained as to whether: the EAT in England and Wales would align with the Court of Session’s approach a difference should be drawn between a ‘clean break’ end of employment (as in Bathgate) and situations where employment continues In this decision, Williams J unequivocally endorses and applies Bathgate. She...

Tesco Stores Ltd v Element and others [2024] EAT 83 Judge Timothy Kerr has scuppered Tesco’s attempt to overturn two case management directions that compel it to disclose documents connected to its defence in equal pay claims pursued by thousands of employees. In a decision dated 23 May and issued on 31 May 2024, he emphasised that appeal tribunals should be slow to interfere with case management orders made by a judge who grasps the dynamics of the litigation. Judge Kerr further noted that tribunals ought to treat with scepticism any proposals likely to cause protracted delay, save where the case features unrealistically short deadlines. He observed that the need to ‘get on with it’ in litigation of this kind requires starting tasks such as disclosure before the ultimate ambit is known or the final timetable is fixed, a point he said Tesco’s highly...

In this issue: Horizon scanning Employment contract Tax Prohibited conduct protection at work Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Diversity and gender pay gap Maternity, parents and carers Individual rights arising from trade union membership Bribery, modern slavery, tax evasion and fraud Unfair dismissal Settlement Employment tribunals Employment Appeal Tribunal Immigration Lex Talk®Employment: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Horizon scanning The PM’s Office confirms the State Opening of Parliament, together with the King’s Speech, will occur on 17 July 2024. The new Parliament is summoned for 9 July 2024 to choose the Speaker and administer oaths to members. See: LNB News 30/05/2024 60. Employment contract Heathrow Express has not succeeded in its appeal concerning lifelong rail perks. In Adekoya v Heathrow Express...

Adekoya and others v Heathrow Express Operating Co Ltd [2024] EAT 72 In a judgment dated 16 April 2024, Judge Simon Auerbach determined that the first tribunal must reconsider whether employees made redundant had waived their entitlement to continuing travel benefits by taking a £750 payment. The decision said this was required because the tribunal’s central reasoning—that a third‑party provider had removed the entitlement—was defective. The ruling was only recently published. The first tribunal will therefore have to revisit that issue again. He noted that the only grounds the tribunal identified for finding that any surviving right had at some point stopped being effective, on the basis it had been varied without breach by the respondent, had been set aside. He added that those bases had been overturned. Adekoya and several other claimants volunteered for redundancy at Heathrow Express Operating Co Ltd in June 2020. They...

The act ushered in a series of reforms, with some measures commencing at once in October 2024 and others still awaiting implementation. Why did these reforms come about? Fraud is the most prevalent offence in the UK. As set out in the government’s 2023 Fraud Strategy, fraud accounts for over 40% of all crime yet attracts less than 1% of police resource......

What are the practical implications of this development? The latest notice from HMCTS, dated 31 May 2024, reminds professional users that My HMCTS reform products go live in the Employment Tribunals for North West England on Monday 3 June 2024. From 3 June 2024, the sole route for professional users—namely solicitors, barristers, advocates and regulated professional representatives holding a Companies House number—to file ET1s in the North West Region ( Manchester) will be the My HMCTS portal. The remaining roll-out dates for other Employment Tribunal regions are: Newcastle — 17 June 2024 South East Region ( Watford) — 1 July 2024 Midlands West ( Birmingham) — 15 July 2024 Wales — 15 July 2024 What is the background? The employment tribunals north and south of the border are in the midst of a modernisation programme known as HMCTS reform......