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12 September 2025 / Ian Smith
Issue: 8130 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Employment law brief: 12 September 2025

229569
Does every little help? Ian Smith delivers an update on supermarket equal pay litigation & goes the extra mile on early conciliation, victimisation & scandalous conduct
  • The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld most of the tribunal’s findings in Tesco Stores Ltd v Element, affirming that detailed job training materials were valid evidence of actual work performed, despite some procedural and factual errors.
  • In Aslam v Transport UK London Bus Ltd, the EAT clarified that the two limbs of victimisation under s 27(1) of the Equality Act 2010 are closely linked.
  • The EAT emphasised a non-technical, justice-focused approach in Chen v Coach Stores Ltd and Bailey v Aviva Employment Services Ltd, allowing claims to proceed despite naming discrepancies and scandalous conduct, respectively, where fairness and proportionality supported continuation.

There was a comment in one of these briefs a little while ago (picked up by my old mate and sparring partner, Professor Dominic Regan) about the increasing length of Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) judgments (‘The insider’,

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Clarke Willmott—Matthew Roach

Clarke Willmott—Matthew Roach

Partner joins commercial property team in Taunton office

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Londstanding London firm appoints new senior partner

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Commercial team in London welcomes technology specialist as partner

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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