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Discrimination: Removing employment barriers for Muslim women

Ambiguous legal protection and subconscious bias by recruiters are making it difficult for Muslim women who wear a headscarf to find work. Arpita Dutt and Rolleen McDonnell investigate ‘The requirements of one’s faith cannot be applied outside work but “politely discarded” during working hours. It would be wrong to suppose that, whereas one’s sex and …
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Maternity Discrimination: Not keeping mum – new mothers face dismissal and disadvantage

Åsa Waring and Dominic Boon consider ways to curb growing discrimination against expectant mothers and women returning from maternity leave ‘The Women and Equalities Committee suggested that the government response needed to be more robust if pregnancy-related discrimination is to decline over the next decade.’ The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the former …
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Executive Remuneration: Pressure grows to rein in runaway pay

Stephen Levinson looks at the latest moves by the City to curb boardroom excess ahead of an expected intervention by the government ‘The Investment Association report criticises consultants for tending to be over-reliant on existing market data to justify paying more, for providing too much off-the-shelf standard advice and for supplanting the renumeration committee in …
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Employment Status: Short-term contracts and Equality Act protection

The Court of Appeal has considered whether two court interpreters could bring discrimination claims despite ostensibly being self-employed. Helen Cookson and Anna Scott report ‘A self-employed individual will be protected under the EqA only if their contract puts them under an obligation to do the work personally.’ In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal …
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Legal News: Employment update

Jo Broadbent rounds up recent case law and developments affecting employers and their advisers ‘The future of the “dual discrimination” provisions in the Equality Act 2010 that have not been brought into force apparently remains under consideration.’ Bans on religious symbols in the workplace – direct or indirect discrimination? Bougnaoui v Micropole SA [2016] concerns …
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Employment Policy: What Theresa may do

Bethan Carney considers the agenda for employment law under the UK’s new Prime Minister ‘[May] has various ideas for dealing with the problem of the “unhealthy” gap between workers’ and bosses’ pay. One of these is that she wants to see greater transparency, including the disclosure of bonus targets and the publication of the ratio …
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Brexit: The immigration impact for employers

Euan Smith and Susan Hay discuss the challenges that employers could face if the UK’s exit from the EU leads to restrictions on the free movement of workers ‘After Brexit, the government would be able to remove the special treatment afforded to EU nationals in the UK’s immigration rules very easily.’ Immigration was a core …
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Disciplinary And Grievance Procedures: Decrypting the Acas code

Victoria Albon and Michael Bronstein analyse two recent EAT decisions which appear to give the green light to employers to ignore the Acas code when dealing with certain types of dismissal ‘The best advice to employers would be to continue to follow the code for any prospective SOSR dismissal where there is some element of …
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Pre-Termination Negotiations: Settlement discussions stay off the record

The EAT has delivered its first decision on the rules making conversations about ending an employment relationship inadmissible in tribunal proceedings. Phil Allen investigates ‘There is always a risk that the very fact that the employer raises the idea of termination could breach the duty of trust and confidence, or that the employee contends that …
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Unfair Dismissal: The re-emergence of reinstatement?

Rosemary Wooders looks at a recent Supreme Court decision on reinstatement and why the remedy is more commonly ordered in New Zealand than in the UK ‘This article considers a recent case in which reinstatement was ordered and explores why claimants do not request such a powerful remedy more often.’ The remedy of reinstatement is …
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