18/12/19
The Health and Safety Executive ("HSE") has released its annual report summarising statistics for 2018/19 related to work-related illness, deaths in the workplace, injuries at work, and working days lost to work-related illness and injury. The report confirmed that the rate of self-…
26/09/19
After a well-earned summer break no doubt a myriad of issues require addressing by schools and establishments, with data protection compliance being amongst them. Returning back from any break brings about its own unique data protection challenges after a long period of reduced staffing as inevitably…
26/09/19
Costs down the drain The Dispute Resolution team at Forbes recently acted for an academy trust which had a vexatious claim issued against it by a neighbour. The neighbour's garden backed onto the school's playing field and he issued a claim for nuisance, alleging that his garden would…
10/04/19
In North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust v Gregg the Court of Appeal held that an employer was not obliged to postpone a disciplinary hearing pending the outcome of a police investigation into an employee. Dr Gregg was employed as a consultant anaesthetist by the Trust since September 2003. In…
28/03/19
The Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") has recently ruled upon whether adverse treatment of a gay Head Teacher can constitute constructive dismissal and sexual orientation discrimination. In Tywyn Primary School v Aplin, the EAT upheld the decision of the Employment Tribunal ("ET")…
21/03/19
The Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") recently addressed the issue of hypothetical comparators in employment claims in Governing Body of Sutton Oak Church of England Primary School & 2 Others v. Mr M Whittaker. The Respondent was a primary school teacher who was employed at the…
18/03/19
The Court of Appeal in The Mayor & Burgesses of the London Borough of Lambeth v. Agoreyo this week confirmed a decision of the County Court that a school had reasonable and proper cause for suspending a teacher in order to investigate allegations that she had used unreasonable force against two…
18/03/19
The Employment Appeal Tribunal ("EAT") held in SW Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust v Jackson that it can be unfavourable treatment under the Equality Act 2010 to send a woman on maternity leave an important email at an email address that she can't access. However, it will be…
20/02/19
An article by the BBC earlier today reported on the intention of Scottish Universities to lower the entry requirements to students from disadvantaged areas. The intention is not to guarantee those gaining the grades a place, but to take students over the threshold for consideration. For example,…
20/02/19
Ms De Groen had been employed as a teacher by Gan Menachem, an ultra-orthodox Jewish Nursery, since July 2012. She was living with her boyfriend whilst working at the nursery, in contravention of the strict religious requirements of ultra-orthodox Judaism. This information came to light at a barbeque…
20/02/19
In schools where the employer is the local authority, if the school wanted to hire someone on a tier 2 visa, would the local authority need a licence to sponsor these visas? Yes, the Local Authority would need to have a tier 2 licence in order to sponsor the visa of the proposed employee. If the…
15/01/19
A former head teacher has been fined for unlawfully obtaining children's personal data from previous schools where he worked. According to the ICO, the head teacher had obtained the information from two primary schools where he had previously been employed, and uploaded it to his then current…
