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Employment Matters - March 2023

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By Hilary Larter, Zoe Wigan & Ceri Fuller

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Published 14 March 2023

Overview

Clients often ask us about employment tribunal waiting times. Last month, the Ministry of Justice published information showing that the average number of weeks between receipt of a claim and the first employment tribunal hearing has steadily increased from 31 weeks in 2008 to 49 weeks in 2021. No information is yet available for 2022, but we suspect it will be some time before there is a rebalancing after the increase in waiting times resulting from the pandemic.

Our alert this month covers a wide range of issues. We have also relaunched our People Pool service.

1. Lost at sea looking for the right HR and employment law expertise? DAC Beachcroft’s People Pool can help

DAC Beachcroft’s People Pool is a fully flexible pool of talented HR professionals and employment lawyers. Clients can dip into the pool of experts according to the expertise they require, and be assured of a high quality, cost effective and bespoke solution designed to meet their organisation’s needs. Whether the job is large or small, complex or straightforward, we have an expert that can assist.

All our experts are professionals we trust, have worked with or alongside. We make sure we find the right skills and experience for you to ensure you get the service you need. It compliments and extends the services we provide to our clients through our Employment, Pensions and Immigration group.

If you have a legal, HR, employment law or employment related issue which People Pool could help with, please contact us by visiting our People Pool website.

2. Employment tribunals: Tribunal erred in refusing to grant privacy order

The Court of Appeal has held that an employment tribunal erred in refusing to grant an order to restrict the public disclosure or reporting of information in a whistle-blowing claim.

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3. Unfair dismissal: “Without Prejudice” letter effectively dismissed employee and claim was out of time

An employee was effectively dismissed even though the letter purporting to dismiss him was marked ‘without prejudice’ and wrongly referred to termination by ‘mutual agreement’.

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4. Employment status: Tribunal erred in finding narrow subsitition clause was a genuine substitution clause

In applying the Supreme Court’s decision in Uber BV and others v. Aslam and others the EAT has confirmed that written terms, including substitution clauses seeking to exclude an employment relationship, are not always irrelevant to a tribunal’s analysis of employment status.

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5. Indirect sex discrimination: Turning down a flexible working request disadvantaged a woman on maternity leave despite decision not being implemented

The EAT has held that an employer’s decision to turn down a flexible working request was a practice, criterion or provision (“PCP”) causing disadvantage, even though the decision was reversed before the employee returned to work.

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6. Predictable working pattern requests: Government backs private members’ bill

The Government has confirmed that it is backing a private Member’s bill which will give workers and agency workers the right to request a predictable work pattern.

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7. Government backed private members’ bills: Update

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