It’s been a busy month. We have had the long awaited Supreme Court decision in the Harpur Trust v Brazel case. The Supreme Court decided that holiday entitlement should not be pro-rated to reflect part year working, and pay is not calculated using a percentage of time worked method. Please see our alert here.
On the topical issue of “Fire and Rehire” the Court of Appeal has overturned an injunction which prevented Tesco from “firing and rehiring” employees in order to remove a “permanent” contractual entitlement to enhanced pay. Please see our alert here.
Finally, legislation enabling employment businesses to supply temporary workers to plug staffing gaps during industrial action came into force on 21 July 2022. Please see our alert here.
Our pick of other developments this month are set out below.
1. Disability discrimination: Employee with long covid was disabled
An employment tribunal has held that an employee with symptoms of long covid was protected by disability discrimination legislation.
2. Whistleblowing: Whistle-blowers’ conduct was separable from the act of whistleblowing so her dismissal was fair
The court of appeal has upheld tribunal and eat decisions that a whistle-blower who was dismissed for criticising a colleague when making a whistle-blowing allegation was not automatically unfairly dismissed even though, viewed objectively, her conduct was reasonable.
3. Legislative reform: Private members’ bill may move the dial on neonatal care
A private members’ bill has been passed backing legislation which will give up to 12 weeks paid neonatal leave to employees.