Ian Smith provides an update on three major employment law developments
Perhaps the most important development in employment law in the last month has been a major judgment by the new Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) president on the meaning of “harassment” across the various strands of discrimination law.
Mr Justice Underhill has now validated the line taken by many of us that, now that we have the modern EU law statutory definition of harassment in place across all heads of discrimination, it is a matter of construing that definition, not of going back to the old case law. Also out this month, we have had an important case in the Court of Appeal on when a contractual term can be evaded because it is a “sham” and a case in the EAT but almost certainly going to the Court of Appeal which raises again a particularly delicious conundrum on the application of TUPE in an instance of contracting out from the public to the private sector.
The facts of
