Legal News

The Data Protection Bill was introduced into Parliament on 13th September. Diana Kloss’s latest blog looks at the new Bill and EU data protection regulations due to take effect next May. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will automatically become part of UK law on 25th May 2018, and will be supplemented by... Read more »
The Court of Appeal held it ‘arguable’ there was a legal obligation to disclose genetic test results to the patient’s daughter, against his wishes. A father was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease. This meant each of his daughters, including the claimant who was pregnant, had a 50% chance of developing the condition. However he did not... Read more »
The EAT held that pay for voluntary overtime could be ‘normal’ pay, which under EU law had to be taken into account in calculating holiday pay. In Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts (bailii,org) the EAT had to consider whether payments received in respect of entirely voluntary overtime could be treated as forming part of... Read more »
Diana Kloss’s blog considers those who are neither ‘employees’ nor genuinely self-employed. What have court cases been saying, and would the proposals in the Taylor Review issued in July be helpful? There have been recent court cases finding against companies which argue that those who work for them are genuinely in business on their own... Read more »
Claimants need no longer pay fees to bring an employment tribunal claim, following a decision by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court held in R (Unison) v Lord Chancellor (www.bailii.org) that the system of employment tribunal fees which has been in place since 2013 is unlawful. With immediate effect, tribunal fees are no longer payable.... Read more »
The Court of Appeal has now considered whether the claimant’s disclosure of an alleged breach of his own contract of employment, which also affected 100 co-workers, could be regarded as in the public interest. In June 2013 it became a requirement for whistleblowing protection that the disclosure must, in the reasonable belief of the worker,... Read more »
The EAT largely upheld a tribunal decision that (on the facts) a college was entitled to dismiss a lecturer who had been off work with a depressive illness for over a year. In Pulman v Merthyr Tydfil College (www.bailii.org), the employment tribunal concluded that the employer had done as much as could reasonably be expected... Read more »
The EAT went some way – but not that far – in considering Equality Act issues on redeployment and pay while off sick. In West v Royal Bank of Scotland (bailii.org) the claimant developed cervical spondylosis and became unable to do her previous job. Part of the case related to her losing her entitlement under... Read more »