Equality, diversity and human rights
An employment tribunal has rejected the unfair dismissal claim of an employee who was caught making a public appearance as a medium while on sick leave.
In General Dynamics Information Technology Ltd v Carranza [2015] IRLR 43 EAT, the EAT held that, when dismissing a disabled employee for absence, the employer was not required either to disregard a final written warning for the purpose of complying with its duty to make reasonable adjustments, or to review the warning before placing reliance on it to effect dismissal.
The sudden dismissal of an employee with caring responsibilities who is performing satisfactorily will raise suspicions of associative disability discrimination, as the employer in this employment tribunal case found out.
In finding that an older project manager was chosen for redundancy because of his age, this employment tribunal highlighted evidence of comments from the managing director that it was time for him to retire.
An employment tribunal has held that the removal of the Koran from a Muslim employee's locker during a locker clearance while he was on paid leave was not religion or belief discrimination.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has dismissed police officers' claims for indirect discrimination on the ground of age. Police forces, to make costs savings, applied the A19 rule in the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 to retire officers who had accrued a certain minimum pension entitlement that could be achieved only after 30 years' service.
An employment tribunal has held that the claimant was subjected to indirect discrimination by the employer's requirement that she work on a Saturday where her religion prohibited Saturday working.
The Court of Appeal has held that it is necessary in indirect discrimination claims for the claimant to show why the provision, criterion or practice (PCP) has disadvantaged the group and the individual claimant.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has dismissed an appeal against an employment tribunal decision that there was no religious discrimination against a Muslim interviewee who was asked by an interviewer about the potential for her unusually long religious dress to provide a trip hazard.
In DLA Piper's latest case report, the upper tribunal in a special educational needs case provides guidance on the exclusion from the definition of a disability under the Equality Act 2010 of a "tendency to physical abuse of others".
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to equality, diversity and human rights.