April 2023 Employment and Discrimination Newsletter Out Now!

Welcome to April's newsletter 

Spring into April with the newsletter from 3PB Employment and Discrimination barristers. The group have been busy analysing and discussing a vast range of cases:

Head of the Employment and Discrimination group Craig Ludlow looks at the case Minnoch and ors v Interserve FM Ltd and ors in which Mr Minnoch and 36 others brought claims for withheld pay relating to days they were on strike in 2019.

Colin McDevitt looks at the case of Dr Bi v E-ACT, in which a breach of an unless order rendered a fair trial impossible. Where a fair trial is no longer possible it seems that it will be impossible for a defaulting party to resurrect their case.

Daniel Brown discusses the case

McQueen v General Optical Council, in which the EAT considered the correct test to apply when deciding whether or not certain conduct 'arose' from disability.

Sarah Clarke considers the case Rohja v Zinc Media Group Plc, in which an unless order followed by strike out was appropriate in a case of repeated breach of orders and failure to attend hearings without good reason.

Updated Vento guidelines for April 6 2023 onwards

The President of the Employment Tribunals has issued the annual update to the Vento guidelines, setting out the bands of awards for injury to feelings and psychiatric injury, payable in cases of discrimination at work, adjusted for inflation.

• A lower band of £1,100 to £11,200 for less serious cases;
• A middle band of £11,200 to
  £33,700 for cases that do not merit an award in the upper band;
• An upper band of £33,700 to £56,200 for the most serious cases;
• With the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £56,200.

Increase to National Minimum Wage for 2023 

From 1 April 2023, all rates of the National Minimum Wage, including the National Living Wage, increase. These increases will benefit millions of low-paid workers. This report by the Low Pay Commission looks at the effects of the incoming rates and current projections for the National Living Wage in 2024 and beyond.

The National Living Wage, relevant to those aged 23+ has increased by £0.92 to £10.42 per hour with the 21-22 year old rate increasing by 10.9% to £10.18 per hour.

EAT reviews case law on unless orders and identifies 16 key points

Head of 3PB's Employment and Discrimination Law team Craig Ludlow looks at the case Minnoch and ors v Interserve FM Ltd and ors [2023] EAT 35 in which Mr Minnoch and 36 others brought claims for withheld pay relating to days they were on strike in 2019.

Breach of an unless order rendered a fair trial impossible

Colin McDevitt looks at the case of Dr Bi v E-ACT [2023] EAT 43 , in which a breach of an unless order rendered a fair trial impossible. Where a fair trail is no longer possible it seems that it will be impossible for a defaulting party to resurrect their case.

EAT considers the correct test to apply when deciding whether or not certain conduct ‘arose’ from disability

Daniel Brown considers the case McQueen v General Optical Council [2023] EAT 36 in which the EAT looked at whether it is fair to discipline an employee because of his aggressive
behaviour which arose because of his disability.

Unless order followed by strike out was appropriate in a case of repeated breach of orders and failure to attend hearings without good reason

Sarah Clarke considers the case Rohja v Zinc Media Group Plc [2023] EAT 39, in which the claimant brought claims for unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, race, pregnancy/maternity and/or sex discrimination. 

Meet the team

3PB’s employment law group offers expert advisory and advocacy services to private and public sector employers across all areas of employment law including unfair dismissal, discrimination, equal pay, industrial disputes, executive contracts, wrongful dismissals, restrictive covenants, whistleblowing, TUPE, injunctions, pensions disputes and disciplinary proceedings.