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NLJ this week: Tesco, misconduct & restrictions on belief

18 October 2024
Issue: 8090 / Categories: Legal News , Employment , Tribunals , Terms&conditions , Discrimination
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It’s not often you get a Supreme Court decision in employment law, writes professor & barrister Ian Smith in this week’s NLJ

Smith, of Norwich Law School, UEA, dives into the issues of fire and rehire in the recent Tesco Stores v USDAW case, as well as three other recent cases for further exploration in his employment law brief.

Smith writes: ‘The judgment serves a useful function in approving the ‘PHI [permanent health insurance] cases’ (as we know and love them, holding that if extensive sickness cover is promised, the employer cannot later try to wriggle out of it) and confirming that the basic principle behind them can apply more generally.’

He also covers cases on the overlap between incapability and misconduct in unfair dismissal, where a charity worker threatened to punch someone in the head; restrictions on expression of religion or belief, where a teacher misgendered a pupil; and the question of whether a belief is worthy of respect, where an employee expressed the view that Muslims should be deported.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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