Weekly Issue 650

Unfair pay practices

According to analysis by the TUC, it would take 52 years for the average worker in Yorkshire to earn what one highly paid banker gets as an annual bonus (...).

Third-party harassment

Section 26 of the Equality Act stipulates that harassment is “unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic”. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held in Bessong v Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust that section 26 cannot be interpreted in such a way that it imposes liability on employers for third-party harassment against their employees (...).

Normal practice

Although normal practice in Scotland is for witnesses to be excluded from the tribunal room unless they have been given permission to be present, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held in E & O Laboratories v Miller that as witnesses are generally entitled under statute to be present, tribunals in England and Wales did not have to comply with the procedure that was normally followed in Scotland (...).