Weekly Issue 432

Guidance on equality law

Having dealt with nearly 50,000 calls on discrimination last year, Acas has launched three, free equality guides to help employers and managers get to grips with the law on equality.

School closure

Section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidation Act 1992 (TULRCA) states that employers have to consult employees before dismissing them if they intend to make 20 or more of them redundant within a certain timescale. In E Ivor Hughes Educational Foundation v Morris and ors, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that the obligations are triggered even if the decision to close is a provisional one.

Group discrimination

Multiple claimants in indirect discrimination claims have to prove that they are members of a particular disadvantaged group in order to succeed. However, in Home Office (UK Border Agency) v Essop, the Court of Appeal has held that they also have to show how they were disadvantaged as individuals by the application of a specific provision, criterion or practice to the relevant characteristic.