Human rights

New and updated

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  No direct sexual orientation discrimination in Christian bakery's refusal to make "gay cake"

  In Lee v Ashers Baking Co Ltd and others, the Supreme Court held that a Christian bakery did not commit direct sexual orientation discrimination in the provision of goods and services when it refused to fulfil a cake order with a message in support of same-sex marriage.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Criminal records: disclosure of acquittal did not breach job applicant's human rights

  In R (on the application of AR) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and another, the Supreme Court held that, although the disclosure of the appellant's acquittal for rape was an interference with his human rights, it was justified. However, the Court expressed concern at the lack of guidance for employers on how to deal with disclosures of serious criminal charges that result in acquittals.

• Type:

  FAQs

  Is an employer able to record a meeting with an employee to ensure that it has an accurate record of the meeting?

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Human rights: Covert CCTV surveillance of Spanish shop workers violated right to privacy

  In López Ribalda and others v Spain, the European Court of Human Rights held that Spanish shop workers' right to privacy was violated when a supermarket installed hidden cameras without their knowledge to monitor employee thefts.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Human rights: CCTV surveillance in classes violated lecturers' right to privacy

  In Antovic and another v Montenegro, the European Court of Human Rights held that overt camera surveillance in a university's lecture halls violated professors' right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Human rights: Dismissed employee's right to private life inadequately protected by the courts hearing his dismissal challenge

  In Barbulescu v Romania [2017] IRLR 1032 ECHR, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held that the Romanian courts failed to afford adequate protection to the art.8 rights of an employee who sought to challenge his dismissal following a monitoring exercise by his employer.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  State immunity cannot prevent claims for EU employment law breaches

  The Supreme Court has held that the State Immunity Act 1978 cannot prevent embassy staff from enforcing workplace rights derived from EU employment laws.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Monitoring work-related Yahoo account breached employee's human rights

  In this Romanian case, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has held that monitoring the employee's private use of a business messaging account amounted to a breach of his right to private life and correspondence under art.8.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Court of Appeal rules on impact of human rights law on collective consultation rights

  The Court of Appeal has held that the legislative provision that excludes park police constables from enjoying collective consultation rights is in breach of their, and their union's, art.11 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  No right to privacy for emails and photos on iPhone relating to work colleague

  The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that the employee had no reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of inappropriate emails and photographs on his iPhone relating to a work colleague that affected the workplace.