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The blame game

15 February 2013 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7548 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Ian Smith considers apportioning liability between respondents & the correct approach to Polkey

Highest on the recent newsworthiness index must be the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the Ladele et al litigation (Eweida and Chaplin v United Kingdom [2011] ECHR 738; Ladele and McFarlane v United Kingdom [2011] ECHR 737) on religious symbolry and objections to certain aspects of a job function. However, this column picks out two other, very different cases which raised difficult points of more prosaic employment law but with both appearing in the national press because of their facts. That factor gives them a unifying element but what most starkly divides them is their final outcomes—in one a lawyer who was unlawfully refused two posts she applied for on racial grounds received in excess of £420,000, whereas in the other a school playtime supervisor who lost her job due to a falling out with the school over a playground incident was eventually awarded £49.99. That is not to say that this is in

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Muckle LLP—Rachael Chapman

Muckle LLP—Rachael Chapman

Sports, education and charities practice welcomes senior associate

Ellisons—Carla Jones

Ellisons—Carla Jones

Partner and head of commercial litigation joins in Chelmsford

Freeths—Louise Mahon

Freeths—Louise Mahon

Firm strengthens Glasgow corporate practice with partner hire

NEWS
One in five in-house lawyers suffer ‘high’ or ‘severe’ work-related stress, according to a report by global legal body, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)
The Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO’s) plea for a budget increase has been rejected by the Law Society and accepted only ‘with reluctance’ by conveyancers
Overcrowded prisons, mental health hospitals and immigration centres are failing to meet international and domestic human rights standards, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) has warned
Two speedier and more streamlined qualification routes have been launched for probate and conveyancing professionals
Workplace stress was a contributing factor in almost one in eight cases before the employment tribunal last year, indicating its endemic grip on the UK workplace
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