With the Employment Rights Bill passing through parliament, there has never been a more important time to prepare for the changes in employment legislation as they take shape. But who can you trust to tell you what’s really happening?
In late 2024 there were some interesting headlines in the mainstream media, together with a lively online discussion, around a particular employment tribunal. One headline ran: "Driver wrongly sacked because swearing ‘more common in the North’". You can see right away why this attracted so much attention. Except it wasn’t true. The claimant won his case because his employers failed to follow a reasonably fair procedure, not because swearing is somehow more socially acceptable ‘north of Watford’. The language, it was judged, would have been in breach of workplace discipline in most places of employment. But, as they say, why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
At this point you may be asking: What has this got to do with employment legislation? Simply because employment law is already complex enough without media myths circulating about what did or didn’t happen in widely discussed cases. Of course, judgements in employment tribunal cases may not set legal precedents, though they do lay bare the way the law works in practice and are therefore useful for practical guidance. It’s vital that HR has access to the facts behind, rather than the speculation about, these cases.
It’s also important because right now parliament is debating...
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