Issue 203 - August 2010
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In August's issue (EOR 203)
Our focus this month is on disability. Our features include organisations that provide training and support to help disabled people get into the jobs market. (...more)Diary: Implementing the Equality ActIn mid-July, implementation of the Equality Act 2010 was more or less on track. The core of the employment provisions will be implemented, as planned, on 1 October. (...more)Diary: Codes, guidance and guidesThe Equality and Human Rights Commission has sent its final draft Codes of Practice on employment, equal pay and service provision to the Government Equalities Office (GEO). (...more) Diary: Israeli impressionsI spent a week at the end of June in Israel, mainly working on discrimination law issues. Israel is a complex country and it has changed a lot since my last visit 14 years ago. Coaching people with learning disabilities into workThe Realistic Opportunities for Supported Employment project provides individual job coaches to people with learning disabilities. Kate Godwin examines how this intensive support enables them to make the transition into paid work. MITIE: helping long-term unemployed disabled people into workMITIE’s Real Apprentice programme gives disabled jobseekers an opportunity to gain work-related skills and experience on one of the company’s client sites and guarantees a reference and job interview for those who successfully complete the course. Carol Foster explains how it works.Non-visible disabilities: what employers need to knowThe Employers Forum on Disability has identified “non-visible disabilities” as an area that employers need to consider carefully. Here, the EFD explains why it has recently issued guidance on this issue.Breakthrough UKGovernment policies and objectives around disability have encouraged the development of user-led organisations that can provide services and support across a variety of fields. Here we look at how one organisation – Breakthrough UK Ltd – has achieved this. The Law Society: promoting equality in the legal professionThe Law Society has developed a charter that gives providers of legal services the opportunity to make a public statement of their commitment to developing and implementing best practice in equality, diversity and inclusion. Sue Johnstone examines how the charter and other initiatives work. (...more)Regulating equality in the broadcasting industryThe Broadcast Equality and Training Regulator has taken on the mantle of regulating equal opportunities in the industry, on the back of its proven track record in improving training and skills and recognition by Ofcom that the industry needs to do better in the area of diversity. Peter Block and Dr Gillian Shapiro outline the model that the industry has adopted to improve its equality and diversity performance.Stable employment relationship explainedWhere there is a “stable employment relationship”, the six-month time limit for bringing an equal pay claim is not triggered until the stable employment rela tionship ends. In this case, the Court of Appeal holds that “employment” for this purpose means the nature of the work, rather than the contract under which it is carried out. North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust v Fox (CA, 30 Jun 2010)Council workers employed at same establishmentThe EAT has ruled that female local authority white-collar workers employed in a range of jobs were employed in “the same establishment” as their equal pay comparators, male manual workers, because it was “fair and reasonable” for the council to be treated as a single establishment for this purpose. City of Edinburgh Council v Wilkinson (EAT, 14 Apr 2010)Guidance on burden of proof The EAT has held that to prove victimisation, it is sufficient to establish that a protected act was part of the reason for detrimental treatment. Pothecary Witham Weld v Bullimore (EAT, 29 Mar 2010)Pregnant women not entitled to full pay during temporary transferThe European Court of Justice has ruled that pregnant women who, for health reasons, are doing alternative work or who are suspended are not entitled to maintenance of allowances from their regular work which relate to the actual performance of those job duties. Parviainen v Finnair Oyj (C-471/08); Gassmayr v Bundesminister für Wissenschaft und Forschung (C-194/08) (ECJ, 1 Jul 2010)Short report: DisabilityThe statutory definition of disability requires that the effect of an impairment has to be “long term”. Patel v Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (EAT, 15 Jan 2010)Short report: TribunalsAccording to the EAT in May v Greenwich Council (15 Apr 2010), an employment tribunal should not refuse to accept a claim form on grounds that some of the details are illegible.Ignoring levels of sickness absence not a reasonable adjustmentIn deciding that an employer had not failed to make a reasonable adjustment for a disabled claimant, an employment tribunal takes account of the budget constraints of a public authority and its responsibility to address absences affecting patient care. Gibbons v Dartford & Gravesend NHS Trust (ET/1101264/09, 1 Apr 2010) Failure to make adjustments for deaf claimantAn employment tribunal holds that an employer failed to make reasonable adjustments by not taking steps to hold a meeting face to face with the claimant, allowing her to express concerns that, as a deaf person, she was not able to raise satisfactorily in any other way – for example, through a phone call. Cottrell v North Tyneside Disability Forum (ET/2506378/08, 31 Mar 2010)Depression likely to be long term where cause of condition continuesIn deciding whether the claimant’s depression was likely to be a longterm impairment, the tribunal takes into account the fact that the circumstances that led to the condition were continuing. It held, on the basis of medical evidence, that the depression was likely to continue as long as the “unpleasant circumstances” that caused it continued. Curran v Essex County Council (ET/3200157/08, 7 May 2010)Manager had no knowledge of disabilityAs the manager responsible for communicating with a disabled employee who was off sick did not know that she was disabled, the employment tribunal found that his failure to communicate was not on grounds of, or related to, her disability. Prashar v London Borough of Merton (ET/2303433/09, 10 May 2010)
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