Health sector information

New and updated

• Date:

  17 December 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Right to work: Employer wrong to rely on checking service

  In Badara v Pulse Healthcare Ltd, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the employer should not have relied solely on negative Home Office checks when it dismissed the employee for failing to provide right to work documentation.

• Date:

  26 November 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Whistleblowing: Court of Appeal reiterates two-stage "public interest" test

  In Ibrahim v HCA International Ltd, the Court of Appeal reiterated the two-step test for an employment tribunal to follow when deciding if the claimant had a reasonable belief that the disclosures they were making were "in the public interest".

• Date:

  1 November 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employers not liable for third-party harassment, confirms EAT

  In Bessong v Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that the Equality Act 2010 cannot be interpreted to make an NHS trust vicariously liable for race discrimination for a patient's racially motivated attack on a mental-health nurse.

• Date:

  7 August 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  NHS trust's monitoring of junior doctors' rest breaks is "flawed"

  In Hallett v Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Court of Appeal held that an NHS trust's use of commercial software to monitor rest breaks results in a breach of junior doctors' terms and conditions of service.

• Date:

  6 August 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  No religious discrimination where director suspended after publicly opposing same-sex adoption

  In Page v NHS Trust Development Authority, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld an employment tribunal decision that there was no religious discrimination where a non-executive director was suspended after voicing his opposition to same-sex couple adoption in the media.

• Date:

  11 June 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Court of Appeal rules that voluntary overtime must be included in holiday pay

  In East of England Ambulance NHS Trust v Flowers and others, the Court of Appeal held that ambulance workers are contractually entitled to have voluntary overtime included in the calculation of their holiday pay and, under the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC), to have it included where it is sufficiently regular and settled.

• Date:

  21 May 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Dismissal for inappropriate religious conversations was fair, rules Court of Appeal

  In Kuteh v Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, the Court of Appeal held that the NHS trust fairly dismissed a Christian nurse for initiating inappropriate conversations about religion with patients in breach of a lawful management instruction.

• Date:

  25 March 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Dismissing mentally ill employee for failing to attend meetings was discrimination, decides tribunal

  In Flemming v East of England Ambulance Services NHS Trust, an employment tribunal held that an NHS Trust discriminated against a mentally ill employee by dismissing him for gross misconduct following his failure to attend a sickness absence review meeting and occupational health appointments.

• Date:

  14 March 2019

  Type:

  Commentary and insights

  Whistleblowing in the NHS

  Consultant editor Darren Newman considers whistleblowing in the NHS, focusing on the public interest test and the danger of working on the basis that an allegation is malicious.

• Date:

  13 March 2019

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Maternity leave: Redundancy form sent to employee's inaccessible work email address

  In South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust v Jackson and others, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that, as long as the miscommunication came from an administrative error, an employee whose redundancy redeployment form was sent to an inaccessible work email address was not unfavourably treated because she was on maternity leave.