We are delighted to share Episode 37 of The Lawdown, our regular podcast discussing the latest key employment, discrimination and partnership law-related news stories, and the interesting legal issues behind them! You can listen to the episode here.  In our latest episode of The Lawdown, Partner Beth Hale, Partner Emma Bartlett and Associate Kia Aoki discuss the following: A Cleaner was apparently dismissed by an employment agency, for eating a leftover sandwich which she believed would be discarded after a lawyer’s meeting at a city law firm. She has r ..read more

In our latest episode of The Lawdown, Partners Beth Hale and Sarah Chilton, Senior Associate Wonu Sanda and Associate Kia Aoki discuss the following: Recently published statistics reveal that women of Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage are earning on average almost a third less an hour than white British men in the UK. In light of this, we discuss the importance of ethnicity pay gap reporting and whether it should be made mandatory, and the difficulties and limitations that may arise in producing this data.   The disparity between CEO and worker pa ..read more

In our latest (interesting and non-Christmas themed) episode of The Lawdown, Partner Emma Bartlett and Senior Associate, Wonu Sanda discuss the following: 1. The historical case of Justine Blainey, a teenager, who in the 1980s brought a successful sex discrimination claim in the Supreme Court of Canada, to strike out provisions in the Ontario HR Code which prohibited girls from playing sports with boys, arguing that she should be allowed to play ice hockey with the boys. We discuss how this case parallels the challenges people still face with bullying and sex discrimination in the workplace. 2 ..read more

We are delighted to share Episode 34 of The Lawdown, our regular podcast discussing the latest key employment, discrimination and partnership law-related news stories, and the interesting legal issues behind them! In our latest episode of The Lawdown, Partners Emma Bartlett and Beth Hale discuss the following: 1. The Royal Kingston-upon-Thames Council has been ordered by the Employment Tribunal to pay £25,000 in compensation for, amongst other things, failing to update a transgender employee’s name in their system – this is known as deadnaming. We discuss an employer’s duty of care when suppor ..read more

We are delighted to share Episode 33 of The Lawdown, our regular podcast discussing the latest key employment, discrimination and partnership law-related news stories, and the interesting legal issues behind them!  In our latest episode of The Lawdown, Partners Emma Bartlett and Beth Hale and Senior Associate, Wonu Sanda, discuss the following: 1. The well-known high street chain, Wilko, going into administration and the resultant, unfortunate mass redundancies. We discuss who bears the responsibility for paying wages, notice and redundancy pay when a company goes into administration ..read more

In our latest episode of The Lawdown, Partner Sarah Chilton and Senior Associates Pooja Dasgupta and Wonu Sanda discuss the following: 1. The legal issues surrounding Phillip Schofield's resignation from 'This Morning' and the subsequent ITV investigation after he admitted to having an "unwise but not illegal" relationship with a younger, male colleague which revealed that he had been lying about the nature of this relationship to his employer, colleagues and the public. 2. Amazon UK offering term-time employment contracts to both parents and grandparents to allow flexible working for employee ..read more

In our latest episode of The Lawdown, Partners Beth Hale and Emma Bartlett and Senior Associate Pooja Dasgupta discuss the following: The Ritz job applicant informed of afro hair ban - we discuss the potential discriminatory impact of “employee [hair] grooming” policies and how to prevent such behaviour/practices, and look at the adoption of the Halo Code (the UK’s first Black Hair code).   The recent investigations into allegations of misconduct at the CBI, the Fire brigade and the Met.   Finally, we discuss how the unintended Boots sign rela ..read more

It’s a new year – which, for the Lawdown podcast, means we get to share more of our legal take on new and interesting stories in the news with you! So please join us for our first episode of the year where Partners Beth Hale and Emma Bartlett, Senior Associate Wonu Sanda and Associate Pooja Dasgupta kick off by discussing some of the top news stories so far, including: 1. Cutting sick pay for unvaccinated staff who are required to isolate as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid. With the likes of Next, Ikea and Morrison's receiving hugely divided reactions to the adopti ..read more

In our latest episode of The Lawdown, Partners Beth Hale and Emma Bartlett discuss with Associate Pooja Dasgupta: The FCA’s consultation on proposals to boost disclosure of diversity on listed company Boards and Executive Committees, including the wide-ranging benefits of embracing such proposals and enforcement considerations; Creative measures taken by firms to tackle staff burnout and workplace stress, including introducing unlimited leave policies and annual workplace closures, and the potential advantages and disadvantages of implementing such policies; and The sharp increase in menopaus ..read more

With the world slowly trying to recover from the impact of the pandemic, in our latest episode of The Lawdown, Senior Associate Wonu Sanda and Associate Pooja Dasgupta discuss connected governmental developments and interesting media stories, including: The government’s recently launched consultation on “making flexible working the default” which is seeking views on the reform of flexible working regulations, including the headline-grabbing day one right to make a request; and the staunch objections to the potential reforms by a senior city executive, who believes staff abuse working from hom ..read more