ABG Employment Newsletter – August 2016
Headteacher fairly dismissed for failing to disclose her relationship with a sex offender
The Court of Appeal has upheld, by a majority, a tribunal decision which found that a school had acted reasonably in dismissing a headteacher for misconduct on the basis that she did not disclose her relationship with a person convicted of making indecent images of children. The court found that she had failed in her safeguarding responsibilities in unilaterally deciding that there was no need to disclose her relationship with the offender and his conviction to the school. Given her position, she should have realised that it was relevant information which she should have provided to the school so that it and the governing body could decide for themselves what steps to take in light of the information.
Dismissal automatically unfair despite decision-maker not being aware of protected disclosures
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employee was automatically unfairly dismissed for making protected disclosures even though the person who dismissed her was unaware of those disclosures. Therefore, a decision made by one person in ignorance of the true facts and which is manipulated by someone else who is responsible for the employee and does know the true facts, can be attributed to their employer.
Advice that dismissal was revoked following appeal meant dismissal “vanished” despite failure to address all the disciplinary allegations
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employee who was told that an initial decision to dismiss him had been revoked, despite the appeal only addressing one of the two disciplinary allegations that had resulted in his dismissal, meant that the employee had not been dismissed. The employment tribunal therefore did not have jurisdiction to hear his unfair dismissal claim.
Guidance Note on Mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting Published
We have prepared a Guidance Note on the draft Employment Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2016. This has been published on our website https://abg-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Mandatory-Gender-Pay-Gap-Reporting-July-20162.pdf
These Regulations affect employers with over 250 employees at 30th April 2017. These employers will have until 29th April 2018 to publish their gender pay gap information. These Regulations are due to come into force on 1st October 2016 and therefore we expect the final version of the Regulations to be published before that date.
You will see from the Guidance Note that we suggest undertaking an initial analysis of the pay data within your organisation and to do this with assistance from us so that any advice or issues highlighted can be discussed confidentially and under the cloak of legal professional privilege.
The comments in this note are of a general nature only. Full advice should be sought on any specific problems or issues.
Christopher Gigg [email protected] +44 (0)115 934 3310
Kathryn Meir [email protected] +44 (0)115 934 3308