A belief that biological sex is immutable is a protected belief under the Equality Act 2010, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled. The case will now return to the employment tribunal to decide whether the claimant was discriminated against because of her belief when her consultancy contract was not renewed.
As of 26 June 2021, new relaxations of COVID-19 measures have entered into force. One of these relaxations is that 50% of employees can work from the office. As an employer, what do you need to think about when returning to the office? In this article, we briefly answer six frequently asked questions.
‘Fire-and-rehire’, the practice in which employers can dismiss employees and engage them on new/different terms (usually where consent is not obtained) has recently been in the spotlight, following reports suggesting that their use has increased during the pandemic.
The Upper Tribunal upheld a First Tier Tribunal decision that a project manager was within IR35 as he would have been an employee if he had been engaged directly. The case (Northern Light Solutions Limited v Revenue and Customs [2021] UKUT 134 (TCC)) relates to the pre-6 April 2021 position according to which it was for the contractor to determine whether he was inside or outside IR35.
In our earlier article Making it Mandatory to be Vaccinated Against COVID-19: A Framework for Employers1 (“Article”), we considered the issue of whether employers can require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 based on the existing legal framework at the time. Since then, the Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation released an advisory on 2 July 2021 to clarify the Singapore government’s policy on this issue and to provide guidance to employers regarding COVID-19 vaccination in the employment context (“Advisory”).
As the pandemic alert has been raised to Level 3, companies have upgraded their pandemic countermeasures. Many companies have implemented work-from-home or a remote work plan in response to the pandemic to reduce the potential impact caused by COVID-19 and to ensure continuity of business operations.
One of the critical issues for work-from-home arrangement is how to keep an employee attendance record. According to the latest ruling issued by the Ministry of Labor, companies may follow the ‘Guiding Principles for Employees Work Time Away from the Business Premises’ to determine the working hours and maintain attendance records.
The DOLE issued Advisories 4, 6, 7 and 8-2021 regarding the requirements for the issuance and cancellation of alien employment permits (AEPs) for foreign employees in the Philippines.
The government has confirmed in its response to its 2019 consultation that it intends to establish a new single enforcement body for employment rights. The new body will enforce breaches in relation to national minimum wage, modern slavery (including modern slavery statements), employment agencies, statutory sick pay and holiday pay for vulnerable workers.
In an article published in Employment Law Journal, Monica Kurnatowska and Rachel Farr assess the impact on employers of the EAT’s decision that ‘gender-critical’ beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010.
The July HR alert features topics such as new rules of remote working, protection of whistleblowers, vaccinated employee privileges, sobriety checks,