Category: Employment law

An employer can ask a prospective employee to complete a medical questionnaire, but only after it has made them a job offer and only if it complies with data protection requirements. Section 60(1) of the Equality Act 2010 prohibits employers from asking job applicants questions about their health before offering them employment (with some exceptions). If an employer intends to ask prospective employees to complete a medical questionnaire after making them an offer of employment, it must ensure that it has a legal basis to do so under the UK…

Employees have a right to request flexible working once they have been employed by you for 26 weeks or more. However, there is a lot of speculation that the 26 week limit may be removed – so watch this space! An employer can refuse a statutory request for flexible working if the refusal is based on one or more specific grounds as noted below. The list of grounds for refusal, as set out in s.80G(1)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, is drafted in very broad terms. The specified grounds…

An employer should always consult individually with employees with a view to obtaining agreement to changes to their contract of employment, and the employer may also have an obligation to consult collectively depending on the number of employees the changes affect. The length of the individual consultation period required will depend on several factors, including the number of employees involved, the nature of the proposed change and the employees’ responses to the changes. There is no minimum time frame for individual consultation. If the employees agree to the proposed changes,…

If the employee resigns with immediate effect, their employment will terminate. There is little point in continuing a disciplinary procedure in respect of an employee who is no longer employed, as no disciplinary sanction can be imposed against a former employee. However, the disciplinary information collated should still be retained for a period of up to one year after the employee’s resignation, because it may be needed as evidence should the employee subsequently try to claim constructive dismissal or unlawful discrimination in relation to the conduct of the disciplinary proceedings.…

It is possible that long COVID could meet the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010, but this would depend on the circumstances in each case, and the impact that the condition has on the individual. Under the Act, a disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on an individual’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. A person does not need a formal diagnosis of a particular condition to fall within the definition, but they must be able…