Welcome to Employment Edit, our pick of the key employment law developments from the last couple of weeks:
- Religious discrimination - The EAT has held that it was not religious discrimination for an employer to take disciplinary action against a Christian senior manager for imposing her religious views on a Muslim junior employee. The employer was entitled to take disciplinary action because the manager had blurred professional boundaries and placed improper pressure on a junior colleague. To rely on Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights to manifest her religious belief, the manager would need to be sharing her faith with a consenting colleague. Wasteney v East London NHS Foundation Trust
- National minimum wage and living wage - The Low Pay Commission (LPC) has launched a consultation seeking views on the existing rates of NMW and NLW and the rates that should apply from April 2017. Given that a number of companies have made the headlines for reducing the benefits of their employees when implementing the NLW, the LPC are also interested in how companies are adjusting and any impact on pay, terms and conditions, income, hours, employment and competitiveness.
- Data Protection - The European Parliament has given its formal approval to the proposed text of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will replace the existing EU directive and contains several significant changes for businesses that control and process the personal data of EU residents. Please see our Data Protection briefing for more information.
- Recruitment - The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2016 have been published and are due to come into effect on 7 May 2016. The regulations include a ban on agencies recruiting solely from overseas EEA countries without advertising the relevant vacancies in English in Great Britain at the same time as it publishes the advertisement in the EEA or without having advertised in English in Great Britain in the period of 28 days beforehand.
If you would like more information, or specific advice, please contact Roger Bull, or get in touch with your usual Burges Salmon contact.