We all know that claims can be made by individuals who are directly discriminated against at work or if they are indirectly discriminated against (i.e. if an employer applies an apparently neutral requirement but that is more difficult for some groups to comply with e.g. a height restriction for no legally justifiable reason). Organisations alsoContinue reading “Employee who refused to work more from the office because she cared for a disabled relative won £350,000 compensation.”
Category Archives: Discrimination
Sigh … Employer loses Tribunal after manager exhales loudly due to an employee’s behaviour. Will need to pay compensation.
Sometimes Tribunal decisions make you want to go and lie down in a dark room. In this case, according to a report in The Times on Saturday the employee had a terrible attendance record and when he did come in, he didn’t do a great deal. Who wouldn’t get frustrated at that? The manager showedContinue reading “Sigh … Employer loses Tribunal after manager exhales loudly due to an employee’s behaviour. Will need to pay compensation.”
Organisation wins race discrimination case despite admitting their employee called a black colleague a ‘monkey’. How?
I have spoken several times in my articles about vicarious liability, where employers are responsible for the actions of their employees. This issue is even more precarious for employers following last October’s law change requiring organisations to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent harassment in work. In this case, during an argument in the workplaceContinue reading “Organisation wins race discrimination case despite admitting their employee called a black colleague a ‘monkey’. How? “
Which approach is best when banter goes over the top, formal or informal?
You may be surprised at a HR company saying this but we generally recommend an informal approach to managing banter and behaviour at work when it gets a bit frothy. Clearly this is not the case where serious discrimination has taken place, or where you have received a complaint as these should always be investigatedContinue reading “Which approach is best when banter goes over the top, formal or informal?”
Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face! How to avoid tribunal claims for discrimination.
This is of course a famous quote from ex-heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. As in boxing, by the time you get ‘punched in the face’ with a claim for discrimination it becomes more about damage limitation than preventing it from happening in the first place. If there is evidence that discrimination happened, you are inContinue reading “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face! How to avoid tribunal claims for discrimination.”
Employers have 3 choices if a colleague makes, or keeps making, offensive remarks.
There is more and more media coverage of this, but employers really don’t need to take draconian steps and ruin their culture for fear of offending oversensitive employees. Where offensive comments are made there are 3 options, as follows: With option 1, the downsides are obvious. It really isn’t difficult to tackle this with some basicContinue reading “Employers have 3 choices if a colleague makes, or keeps making, offensive remarks.”
What should employees do if they witness discriminatory behaviour at work?
The easy answer is that they should report it or challenge the perpetrator, and support the victim. However in our experience, whether this will actually happen largely depends on the culture of the organisation. There are many companies where discriminatory remarks are not challenged and are therefore allowed. There are many reasons for this, whetherContinue reading “What should employees do if they witness discriminatory behaviour at work?”
Employers have a legal duty to tackle discriminatory remarks made by customers and suppliers to their staff
Most organisations we speak to aren’t aware of this and are unsure how to tackle it. Afterall, you can’t discipline another company’s employee! But the law very clearly puts the onus on employers to tackle discriminatory comments wherever they come from, even if it is outside their organisation and if they don’t do so theContinue reading “Employers have a legal duty to tackle discriminatory remarks made by customers and suppliers to their staff”
The curse of Whatsapp groups strikes again. What should employers do?
It started a couple of decades ago with unsavoury jokes sent by email, often discriminatory. The company wag would send a picture with a caption poking fun at a group, related to their race, sex, or sexual orientation (in the olden days before Trans existed and there were only 2 genders). The problem was thatContinue reading “The curse of Whatsapp groups strikes again. What should employers do?”
Why might an offensive social media comment posted outside working hours be classed as a work issue?
This is one of those areas where common sense generally prevails but people often get caught out. Take the following comment: ‘Just finished my shift at Fosters where my hormonal boss Nicola shouted at me for no reason. Awful place to work.’ This is likely to be found to be a work related comment andContinue reading “Why might an offensive social media comment posted outside working hours be classed as a work issue?”