I was once consulted by a former banker who wanted to establish a search firm to find exclusively female candidates for financial services roles. A nice idea, I told him, but fraught with legal difficulties. I have since heard that many search consultants, particuarly in the advertising world, are given the unofficial brief that a particular role needs to be filled by a woman. While this is obviously unlawful, what can employers do lawfully to address an imbalance in its workforce? Not much says a recent case involving the police… Continue reading “Policing positive action”
Redundancy is often seen as an easy way to get rid of difficult employees. Employees made redundant frequently suspect (with or without justification) that there was a nefarious reason behind their selection but there is rarely any direct evidence to support this and the employer’s deliberations are often hidden behind a cloak of ”legal privilege”. Recently however, one employer found that its plans to make a disabled lawyer redundant were not as protected as it thought… Continue reading “Be careful what you write (or say in the pub)”
I admit it: I thrilled at the bank’s barrister squirming in London East Tribunal last year as he failed to obtain an order that my client’s whistleblowing claim be held in private – I was an ardent fan of open justice! But a development last month has made me wonder where I draw the line… Continue reading “Open justice or blacklisting?”
A taxi driver once asked me, having been told I was an employment lawyer, whether I represented “women who ask for a million pounds because someone made a remark about their tits”. Not only does this illustrate a common misperception of employment law, it is also relevant to the new, supposedly toothless, Gender Pay Gap Regulations. Continue reading “The Gender Pay Regulations – toothless but hidden venom”
Tribunal Monkey 