In Adenusi v London Underground Ltd, an employment tribunal held that the employee's dismissal for sexual harassment was unfair because the employer did not carry out a reasonable investigation.
In Bessong v Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that the Equality Act 2010 cannot be interpreted to make an NHS trust vicariously liable for race discrimination for a patient's racially motivated attack on a mental-health nurse.
Kelly Thomson, legal director at law firm RPC, gives us some top tips on the steps that employers can take to prevent sexual harassment. Kelly also gives her insight into how employers should deal with complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace and the key pitfalls that they should avoid.
In Unite the Union v Nailard, the Court of Appeal held that the union was liable for the acts of its lay officials because they were acting as its agents, but that the union was not liable for failures by its employed union officials to prevent discrimination by third-party lay officials.
In Bakkali v Greater Manchester Buses (South) Ltd t/a Stage Coach Manchester, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that asking a Muslim employee whether or not he supported IS did not amount to harassment because, given the context, the offending comment was not "related to" his religious belief or race.
In Peninsula Business Service Ltd v Baker [2017] IRLR 394 EAT, the EAT held that, for a claim of harassment to succeed in a case involving the protected characteristic of disability, it is not enough for the alleged harassment to be "related to" disability in a general sense. The claimant must actually have a disability to bring the claim.
This case is a prime example of the problems that can occur in a workplace when a member of staff is undergoing IVF treatment in a bid to get pregnant.