Employment & HR

A 93-year-old employee has been made redundant by Havering Council. Although his redundancy seems genuine, it raises the question whether an employee can continue working for as long as they want to. What’s the position?

New Regulations. Following Brexit, certain EU-derived discrimination laws were due to be automatically removed at the end of 2023. To prevent this happening, the government has introduced the Equality Act 2010 (Amendment) Regulations 2023 which are due to come into force on 1 January 2024. Amongst other things, these Regulations: confirm that discrimination on the grounds of breastfeeding falls under the protected characteristic of sex; grant individuals the right to claim indirect discrimination by association, i.e. where a person suffers less favourable treatment because they know a person with a protected characteristic and extends direct discrimination protection to cover statements made about not recruiting people with certain protected characteristic, e.g. age or race. ...

An employee who was labelled “a pensioner” because of his age and placed “in the relegation zone” has been awarded £340,000 in compensation by the tribunal. These are both no-nos, but where else did the employer go wrong?

You’re looking at providing some training for your workforce. However, one of your employees is nearing 66 and you suspect that they might retire soon. Can you exclude this employee from your training plans?