Health and safety

New and updated

• Date:

  21 February 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sex discrimination: Failure to carry out risk assessment for pregnant woman is discrimination

  In Hardman v Mallon, t/a Orchard Lodge Nursing Home, the EAT holds that a failure to carry out a risk assessment in respect of a pregnant employee as required by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 amounts to unlawful sex discrimination. This is because carrying out a risk assessment is one of the ways in which a woman's biological condition during and after pregnancy is given special protection.

• Date:

  31 December 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Horton v Taplin Contracts Ltd

  In Horton v Taplin Contracts Ltd [2002] EWCA Civ 1604 CA, the Court of Appeal held that it is clear from the wording of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992, regulation 5 that when an employer supplies work equipment it must be suitable in any respect that it is reasonably foreseeable will affect the health or safety of any person. In this case the unlawful actions of the claimant's work colleague were not foreseeable.

• Date:

  31 December 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  O'Neill v DSG Retail Ltd

  In O'Neill v DSG Retail Ltd [2002] All ER (D) 500 (Jul) CA, the Court of Appeal held that as soon as an employer has identified, as a control measure, the need to provide information and training, appropriate steps should be taken to ensure that each and every employee at risk receives that information and training and that appropriate training records are kept.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  A duty to dismiss for the employee's best interest

  Employers have a duty to protect employees from physical danger, even if the employee wants to continue working. By Linda Farrell, partner Bristows.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employers have duty of care for stress returnees

  The onus is on the employer to ensure workload is appropriate when staff return from sick leave due to stress, rules the Court of Appeal.

• Date:

  25 March 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employers' liability: Court of Appeal guidelines for stress at work cases

  In Sutherland v Hatton, the Court of Appeal heard four appeals against county court judgments, related only by their subject matter. In each, a defendant employer appealed against a finding of liability for psychiatric illness caused by stress at work.

• Date:

  31 December 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Green v Yorkshire Traction

  In Green v Yorkshire Traction [2001] EWCA Civ 1925 CA, the Court of Appeal held that, although the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992, regulation 6(1) creates an absolute duty of care, the words 'maintained in an efficient state' must be given their ordinary meaning when determining whether there has been a breach of duty.

• Type:

  FAQs

  What wages are owed to employees if their place of work is temporarily shut down for health and safety reasons?

• Type:

  FAQs

  Are employers legally obliged to arrange on-the-job health and safety training?

• Type:

  FAQs

  Is health and safety training applicable only to high-risk occupations?