Employment Edit: 25 June 2026

Legal updates

Data protection complaints

An important new personal data right came into effect last week – with effect from 19 June 2026, all data subjects have a new right to complain directly to any controller of their personal data (including employers). The meaning of “data protection complaint” is broad and includes any expression of dissatisfaction from an individual about how their personal data has been collected, used, stored, shared, or otherwise processed. 

To comply with the new right, organisations need to have a data protection complaint handling process and must update their privacy notices to inform individuals of their rights. There is some flexibility for organisations to decide how complaints can be made (for example, by email or online complaints form) but there are other prescriptive requirements – for example, when a complaint is received, the organisation must acknowledge it within 30 days and must deal with it without undue delay.

The ICO has issued guidance looking at how organisations should handle data protection complaints in accordance with the new rules. For a deeper dive into what these changes mean for employers and other data controllers, take a look at the below blog post posted by our Commercial & Technology colleagues.

Discrimination-related resignation

The EAT has confirmed that, where an employee resigns in response to an act of discrimination, it will be open to them to seek to recover their future lost earnings as part of their discrimination complaint as long as those lost earnings flow from, or were caused, by the act of discrimination.

Over a number of months, the respondent investigated complaints about the claimant’s work without significantly involving her or giving her information about the allegations. The claimant, who suffered from anxiety and depression, raised a grievance and resigned after the lengthy grievance and appeal processes concluded. She brought an indirect discrimination claim alleging that the respondent’s failure to permit her to participate in the investigation put her at a disadvantage as it caused a deterioration in her mental health.

After upholding the indirect discrimination claim, the tribunal found a clear link between the respondent’s discriminatory treatment of the claimant (which lasted for a considerable period of time), her eventual resignation, and the financial loss that followed. The tribunal noted that the claimant’s trust in the respondent was never restored and the repercussions from the investigation continued until the claimant’s employment ended. The EAT upheld the tribunal’s finding, noting that the tribunal had carefully considered whether the losses flowed “directly and naturally” from the indirect discrimination.

(Griffiths v Essex County Council)

E-balloting

Earlier this week, the government published its response to the consultation into electronic and workplace voting for statutory trade union ballots. In contrast to the current requirement for all industrial action ballots to be carried out by post or in-person, the consultation response outlines steps to move towards electronic and hybrid voting as additional options that can be used instead of, or as well as, postal and in-person voting.

Under hybrid voting, physical voting papers (which will include details of how the voter can submit their vote electronically) will be sent to each voter by post. For electronic voting, the voting form (including details of how to submit their vote electronically) will be sent to each voter by email only. It will be for the union to decide in each case which voting method to use.

Key next steps include:

• Later in 2026 (likely August 2026): Subject to approval by parliament of a new code of practice (which was published at the same time as the consultation response), electronic and hybrid voting will be permitted for industrial action ballots.
• 2027: The government plans to extend electronic and hybrid voting to statutory recognition and derecognition ballots.