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The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a sleep-in payment was not an allowance for the purpose of the national minimum wage. Therefore it should not be excluded from the calculation of the hourly rate paid by the employer.
In Kulkarni v Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Trust and Secretary of State for Health [2009] IRLR 829 CA, the Court of Appeal held that NHS doctors subject to disciplinary proceedings are entitled to be represented at any disciplinary hearing by a qualified lawyer instructed by their medical protection organisation.
In Hartlepool Borough Council v Llewellyn and other appeals [2009] IRLR 796 EAT, the EAT confirmed that male employees may institute contingent claims relying on female comparators who have instituted equal pay claims citing other more highly paid male colleagues. The male employees may be awarded arrears of pay for the same period as their comparators.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a special constable's inability to meet the physical requirements to become a regular constable is not an adverse effect on her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities when deciding whether or not she is disabled.
The Court of Appeal has held that paying bonuses to employees who worked night shifts did not constitute sex discrimination.
In Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council v Bainbridge and Equality and Human Rights Commission and other appeals [2008] IRLR 776, the Court of Appeal held that a transitional pay protection scheme that, in effect, preserved the previous (unlawful) pay levels of men, while failing to offer equivalent higher pay to women engaged on work rated as equivalent, perpetuated historic indirect sex discrimination and was not objectively justified.
In Bayode v The Chief Constable of Derbyshire EAT/0499/07, the EAT held that, where alleged less favourable treatment consisted of accurate written records made by colleagues in their personal notebooks about aspects of a black police officer's behaviour that were of concern to them, the employment tribunal was entitled to find on the facts that the officer had no justified sense of grievance about the making of the entries and therefore had not suffered any detriment.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, in the circumstances of the case, the issue of disparate treatment did not arise when an employee was dismissed but another was not disciplined.
In Azmi v Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council EAT/0009/07, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has dismissed an appeal against an employment tribunal's ruling that an employee who was dismissed for refusing to remove her veil while teaching had not been discriminated against on the grounds of religion or belief.
In Bull and another v Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority; Lincolnshire County Council v Fire Brigades Union and others [2007] All ER (D) 372 (Feb) CA, the Court of Appeal has held that it is not part of fire-fighters' normal contractual duties under a collective agreement to go to accidents and emergencies that would normally be dealt with by ambulance crews.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information, news and guidance relating to specific industry sectors.