Weekly Issue 465

Acas guide on sex discrimination

The conciliation service Acas has published a new guide to help employers, employees and trade union reps get to grips with the law around equality and to be aware of any behaviour that could be considered to be sex discrimination.

Vouching for childcare

The Equality Act states that it is unlawful to discriminate against a woman because she is pregnant or on maternity leave. In Peninsula Business Services v Donaldson, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that it not discriminatory to suspend membership of a childcare voucher scheme during maternity leave.

Liable for attack

For an employer to be found vicariously liable for the actions of their employee, there has to be a sufficiently close connection between the wrongdoing and the job the employee was employed to do. In Mohamud v WM Morrison Supermarkets plc, the Supreme Court held that Morrisons was vicariously liable for a vicious attack carried out by one of their employees on a customer.