Employment Law Focus

In this episode Jonathan Rennie, partner at TLT is joined by Sarah Maddock, senior knowledge lawyer at TLT and Emma Erskine-Fox, managing associate in the Technology and Intellectual Property team at TLT to look at the impact of AI on employment law and discuss:

• Key differences between various types of AI technologies.
• Why generative AI like ChatGPT is gaining increased attention.
• How AI tools be used to enhance workplace productivity.
• How employers can address the potential risks and challenges associated with AI in decision-making.
• How AI systems affect the fairness and reasonableness of decisions.
• Data protection considerations and legal obligations for employers when using AI for decision-making and information processing.
• How organisations can establish effective governance and policies around AI technology.
• Role of training and transparency in the responsible use of AI in the workplace.

In today's workforce, where one in three workers is over 50 and 80% of women aged 45 to 55 are employed, it is essential for employers to recognise and address the impact of menopause. Many employees undergoing this natural transition report adverse effects on their work, and statistics reveal a rise in litigation concerning menopause-related issues.  

In this episode, hosted by Leeanne Armstrong, legal director at TLT, we’re joined by Stephanie Reid from Menopause Spring and Louise Chopra, partner at TLT to discuss the significance of supporting employees experiencing menopause and share invaluable strategies for creating a supportive work environment including:  

• Why must employers ensure they are equipped to effectively deal with menopause in the workplace?
• What are the expectations of menopausal individuals from their employers?
• How can employers meet those expectations, including in terms of policy development and initiatives?
• What were the key objectives and challenges for TLT in devising a menopause strategy in the workplace?
• Our key takeaways for employers on addressing the impact of menopause and implementing effective strategies in the workplace.

Further reading:

Menopause and the workplace: Government Response to the Committee’s First Report of Session 2022–2023

Mrs M Rooney v Leicester City Council

A v Bonmarche Ltd

BS 30416, Menstruation, menstrual health and menopause in the workplace

TLT Menopause Toolkit for employers

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In the latest episode of our Employment Law Focus podcast, we look at neurodiversity, a range of conditions which affect how people think, process and interpret information. This affects around 15% of people but, until fairly recently, has not been widely considered in the workplace. 

Traditional workplaces are often designed by and for a neurotypical society, which can negatively affect employees who are neurodivergent and prevent them from thriving at work. Understanding the differing needs of each person in your workplace will help to adjust practises to ensure every employee is equipped to perform to the best of their ability.

Jonathan Rennie and Sarah Maddock discuss the important role that employers play in the lives of people who are neurodivergent and what best practice can look like in the modern workplace.

We look at: 

• What neurodiversity actually means
• Benefits from attracting candidates who are neurodivergent
• Supporting development at work
• How employers can manage the hidden nature of these conditions
• What additional things need to be considered if an employment tribunal claimant has a neurodiverse condition

Further reading

Bupa – supporting neurodiversity in the workplace

CIPD – neurodiversity at work

ACAS – webinar – inclusive workplaces: making changes to better support neurodiversity

Neurodivergent women sought for jobs at GCHQ and BAE Systems

Noor v Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Sherbourne v Npower

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or tweet us using #TLTemploymentpodcast or @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Alongside the usual risks and issues – from seasonal bugs to Christmas parties – the “permacrisis” means that in-house legal and HR teams will face a plethora of new considerations this winter. In this episode, Jonathan Rennie and Grace Caldicott discuss everything from writing hardship policies and offering early access to wages, to the pros and cons of different kinds of flexible working policies and how to normalise conversations about money.

They also offer advice on:

• What to do if an employee starts a second job
• The role of communication in health and wellbeing
• Avoiding bias and minimising the risk of discrimination claims
• Interpreting contract terms 

Our news section highlights a new pay transparency law in New York, while our listener’s question touches on Elon Musk’s email to Twitter staff asking them to commit to working “long hours at high intensity” and being “extremely hardcore”.

Further reading:

• CIPD: Cost of living crisis
• CIPD: Tackling in-work poverty
• HSE: Home working
• TLT: Bellman Christmas party ruling

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or tweet us using #TLTemploymentpodcast or @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

In this episode, we’re joined by Bobbi Pickard, CEO of Trans in the City, to discuss how employers can improve their approach to trans and non-binary inclusion in the workplace.

We explore questions like:

• Is the term LGBTQIA+ a help or a hindrance?
• What does trans and non-binary actually mean?
• Are gender-critical beliefs protected by law?
• Is the law fit for purpose, and how might it change in the future?
• What does best practice look like?

We discuss the importance of vocalising a clear position on trans and non-binary inclusion and educating staff. We also discuss the benefits of creating a safe and welcoming environment, from recruiting the best talent to allowing people to do their best work.

As Bobbi says, it takes years to change a company’s culture, but today’s graduates are already exploring their identities and have high expectations about equality, diversity and inclusion.

Further reading:

• Grainger plc & Ors v Nicholson
• Maya Forstater v CGD Europe & Ors 
• Ms R Taylor v Jaguar Land Rover Ltd
• United Nations Global Compact

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or tweet us using #TLTemploymentpodcast or @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

50 years on from the Sex Discrimination Act, sexism is unfortunately still common at work. And yet studies repeatedly show that more diverse workplaces are more successful.

In this episode, we discuss questions like:

• Do workplace policies sustain gender stereotypes?
• Has the pandemic successfully de-coupled gender from flexible working?
• Will the UK government reform gender pay gap reporting this year?
• Does a holiday really allow for “rest and relaxation” if the employee is suffering from menopause symptoms, menstrual pain or undergoing early-stage IVF treatment?

We look at how gender equality issues are changing, and help HR and legal teams to navigate the risks, challenges and debates. We also highlight a story that considers: when is a sex discrimination case not a sex discrimination case?

As employers continue to face challenges with recruitment and retention, it’s more important than ever that they’re able to show a strong hand with regards to ESG and ED&I issues.

Useful links:

• Acas – Improving equality, diversity and inclusion
• The Fawcett Society – Menopause and the workplace
• TLT - Addressing menopause in the workplace

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or tweet us using #TLTemploymentpodcast or @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Can an employer really claim to have strong ESG credentials if they aren’t addressing societal issues like race equality and discrimination, and if they’re simply relying on policies and training?

How can employers meet the changing expectations of regulators, investors, employees, job candidates and clients?

The legal definition of race is much broader than many people realise. In this episode, Kanika Kitchlu-Connolly, co-chair of TLT’s BAME network, joins our employment team to discuss:

• Why this is so challenging but important for employers to get right
• The role of employee networks, from sharing information and lived experiences to raising issues, offering solutions, acting as a sounding board and holding employers to account
• The role of data, from helping employers to achieve their goals, to demonstrating what’s working, revealing barriers and defending claims
• Other ways to embed an anti-racism policy, from induction processes and exit interviews, to reverse mentoring and enabling people to become allies
• Complex legal issues, including those arising from “zero tolerance” policies, “banter”, harassment, indirect discrimination and positive discrimination

Our news update covers fire and rehire practices and the rights of agency staff.

Further reading:

• Acas: fire and rehire practices
• BITC: Race at Work Charter
• Rare Recruitment: Race Fairness Commitment
• EHRC: using positive action to address workplace disadvantage

Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Returns to work are set to become even more challenging with the advent of hybrid and remote working, to the extent that the traditional toolkit may no longer be fit for purpose.

In this episode, our employment and regulatory teams discuss five new challenges for HR and legal teams, and share their insights and advice surrounding:

• Occupational stress
• Supervision and performance management
• Personal injury
• Training and career development
• Long Covid

There are some recurring themes, including:

• The risk that employers underestimate their legal obligations;
• The need to think about the individual employee and take a tailored approach;
• The importance of effective employee communications; and
• Maintaining a complete record of steps taken to support employees and minimise health and safety and other risks. 

Our listener question addresses the timely topic of mandatory vaccinations at work, and what we’ve been seeing and advising clients.

Useful link: HSE guidance on home working

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

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If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

After Me Too and Black Lives Matter, there are growing signs that disability could be the next recipient of a major social media movement, not to mention new legal duties for employers.

In the UK, the government has published a new National Disability Strategy including mandatory reporting for employers, the employment gap is impossible to ignore, and the Tokyo Paralympics sparked the campaign WeThe15 representing the world’s 1.2 billion people with a disability.

But are employers ready for this? Disability varies wildly from other areas of equality law, and as PageGroup CEO and disability rights champion Steve Ingham recently said, many employers simply think: “It’s too complex an issue to grapple with” and therefore don’t engage.

We discuss:

• Why this is such a complex area of employment law, and why employers should act now
• The merits of pay gap reporting and quotas, but more importantly, the need for an inclusive workplace culture
• Employer attitudes when deciding what is/is not a disability
• The different types of disability discrimination and knowledge tests
• The tricky business of using medical reports

We also explain cases covering:

• Concealment of a disability
• Assuming the knowledge of your agents
• “Reasonable” adjustments including cost

Our listener question looks at four-day working weeks and what employers should consider when defining the scope of a trial.

Useful link: EHRC Code of Practice

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Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or Tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

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If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.

Employee wellbeing has risen up the corporate agenda during the pandemic. However, this is set to become an even bigger issue in the coming months, as HR and legal teams navigate the impact of hybrid working, the right to work flexibly, the end of furlough, long Covid and more.

How can employers address the stigma around mental health and wellbeing? What does proportionate support look like? And what new risks and challenges do they face? 

In this episode, we discuss:

• The right to disconnect – what is it, how does it work, and could it work in the UK? With insights from Deirdre Lynch, partner at ByrneWallace LLP in the Republic of Ireland.
• Gender equality – with more women planning to work from home after the pandemic than men, is “proximity bias” and backwards progress on gender equality in the workplace inevitable?
• Remote line management – how can employers make sure they’re spotting the signs and giving the right support to line managers and employees working remotely?
• Common themes in employment tribunal claims – including the growth of psychiatric injury claims, and the importance of early intervention and being able to show that you’ve taken proactive steps to support employees with their mental health and wellbeing.

We also explain how TLT is using the Mindful Business Charter to reduce unnecessary stress in the workplace and show respect for colleagues’ wellbeing.

Send us your questions and we'll answer them in a future episode – email [email protected] or tweet us using the hashtag #TLTemploymentpodcast and tag @TLT_Employment

You can find out more about our employment team at tltsolicitors.com/employment

Sign up to receive our updates at tltsolicitors.com/signup

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please rate us and write a review.