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Author Archives: Darren Newman
The UK never had an opt-out from the Working Time Directive
We really didn’t. It seems that David Cameron is going to insist on reclaiming the UK’s opt out from employment law as part of his renegotiation of the terms of Britain’s membership. It’s not clear whether the claims are genuine or … Continue reading
Can a cake even BE gay?
UPDATE: 24 October 2016 Today the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland upheld the county court decision I discuss below. You can read the full decision here if you are keen. On a brief scan through, I think I pretty … Continue reading
Posted in Sexual Orientation
Tagged Ashers, Freedom of Speech, gay cake, Northern Ireland, religion
10 Comments
Dear Jeremy, ever heard of the Equality Act?
Is it OK if an employer asks a job candidate questions about their childcare arrangements? The question has come up because in a ‘Dear Jeremy’ article in the Guardian (a sort of workplace agony uncle column) A reader wrote in … Continue reading
Posted in Equality Act, Recruitment
Tagged Childcare, Dear Jeremy, guardian, indirect discrimination, job interviews, work-life balance
1 Comment
We shouldn’t scrap race discrimination laws
This is all the fault of Daniel Barnett. He rather mischievously pointed me in the direction of this article in Spiked – the online magazine that likes to think of itself as punchy and edgy. It was written by a barrister … Continue reading
Posted in Indirect discrimination, Race Discrimination
Tagged Essop, Jon Holbrook, Spiked
7 Comments
Why we should scrap the Equal Pay Act
First of all, apologies for the clickbait title – couldn’t resist it. Also to anyone thinking “Surely the Equal Pay Act was repealed by the Equality Act and replaced by provisions dealing with ‘Equality of Terms’?” you are of course quite … Continue reading
Posted in Equal pay, Equality Act
Tagged emily thornberry, equal pay audits, gender pay gap, new statesman
1 Comment
Unfair Dismissal: What’s it worth?
I remember the days when the compensation limits for unfair dismissal were nice round numbers. The compensatory award was set by Government as £8,000 (a while ago), £10,000 or £12,000. Then New Labour increased the limit to £50,000 and provided … Continue reading
Docking wages for toilet breaks: the real scandal
In the folk song ‘Drill ye Tarriers Drill’ Big Jim Goff is blown into the air by a workplace explosion and when he queries why his next wage packet is a dollar short he is told ‘you were docked for … Continue reading
Posted in Wages
Tagged call centre, deductions from wages, Equality Act, Jo Swinson, Madeleine Moon, Toilet breaks
18 Comments
New figures on Acas early conciliation
As we all try to assess the continuing impact of the Employment Tribunal fee regime – see the Hard Labour Blog for some excellent analysis of that – Acas have published the latest figures on their early conciliation scheme. Acas … Continue reading
Posted in Early conciliation
4 Comments
The Great Northern Ireland Bake-off
The Equality Commission of Northern Ireland is threatening to take action against a bakery that refused to bake a Sesame Street themed cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan. This has the potential to turn into one of those conscience v equality … Continue reading
Why holiday pay has to include overtime
What has struck me most about some of the commentary on the EAT decision in Bear Scotland Ltd v Fulton (and other cases) on overtime and holiday pay has been the way in which it is assumed that the exclusion … Continue reading
Posted in EU law, Working Time and Annual leave
Tagged Annual leave, BCC, CBI, European Court of Justice, John Cridland, Langstaff, overtime, Vince Cable, Week's pay
11 Comments
A Range of Reasonable Responses 