Welcome to Employment Edit, our regular update giving the pick of the key developments in employment law from the last couple of weeks:
- Disability discrimination – Burges Salmon acted for FirstGroup on its appeal to the Court of Appeal in the case of FirstGroup PLC v Doug Paulley regarding the use of the wheelchair space on buses. The key issue was whether bus operators are obliged to operate a “require rather than request” policy for non-wheelchair users to vacate the space when a wheelchair user wishes to board. For more information please see our briefing, How far must transport providers go to ensure access to wheelchair users on buses?
- Employment tribunal fees – The High Court has dismissed Unison’s second judicial review application challenging the legality of employment tribunal fees. Unison relied on the statistics showing the fall in employment tribunal claims and, without any potential claimants, Lord Justice Elias said that the Court had no evidence at all that any individual has even asserted that he or she has been unable to bring a claim because of cost. The Court also dismissed arguments that the scheme was indirectly discriminatory on the grounds of sex.
- Social media – In Game Retail Ltd v Laws the EAT held that tribunal judge had not taken into account the public nature of Twitter when deciding the dismissal of an employee for posting offensive tweets was unfair. The EAT refused to lay down any general guidance on dismissal for social media misuse but held that the usual ‘range of reasonable responses’ test applies to such a dismissal.
If you would like more information, or specific advice, please contact Roger Bull or get in contact with your usual Burges Salmon representative.