An employer is permitted to indirectly discriminate on the basis of one of the nine protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010, only if doing so is a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.
In the recent case of Heskett v Secretary of State for Justice, Mr. Heskett, a Probation Officer, was subject to indirect discrimination on the basis of his age. A pay progression policy was changed so that it would take him 23 years instead of 8 years to reach the top pay available for his role, essentially because his employer needed to save money. As one of the younger employees this disadvantaged him.
Typically the courts have held that saving or avoiding cost cannot, on its own, justify indirect discrimination. However, this case is interesting because the Court of Appeal held that an employer’s need to reduce expenditure, including staff costs, in response to financial constraints can amount to justification. Of course the line between the mere saving of cost and the aims upheld as legitimate in this case could be very thin in some situations and the decision should mean that policies which might disadvantage younger or older members of the workforce are easier to defend.
… on 17 July 2024 the new Labour Government’s legislative agenda was made public as part of the King’s Speech. The Speech itself was light on detail (as is often the case), but the Government released a briefing note setting out more of the substance on their plans, which represent the biggest shake-up of employment law in at least 14 years.
Half of 2024 has already passed and there has been a flurry of reforms to the employment landscape even before the impending election, which may result in even more wide-ranging changes. These have largely focused on family leave, although there have also been updates to the law around flexible working, which we have commented on previously…
At Waterfront, our specialist employment & HR lawyers advise on settlement agreements every week but for our employee clients, signing such an agreement can be a once-in-a-lifetime event. If you have been offered a settlement agreement or you are finding the process confusing or daunting, we are here to help. What…
In times of economic turmoil, redundancies are seldom far away. Against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, unease in the financial markets resulting from political uncertainty and the continuing legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies are making cutbacks and having to find efficiencies in order to survive. Indeed, the last few weeks have seen news headlines about mass-layoffs at Twitter, the Independent and Royal Mail.