Content
Brave New World
Business Not Pleasure
Summertime Blues
All That Glitters...
Casting The Net
Trust Gordon?
It Ain't Over...
One In The Eye
Keep Your Nose Clean
Foreign Affairs
When Is A Car...
Don't Walk Away
Avoiding, The Issue
Brown Is Anti-PC
VAT's Up Doc?
Fuel's Gold
An Age-old Question?
That's Unfair!
Year In Year Out
How Hard To Try?
It's A Rip-Off!
Outlaws Win
Show Some Restraint
Not Our Problem
They Cannot Be Serious?
Merry-Go-Round
Pension Disappointments
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When a woman returns from maternity leave, she can ask her employer to take her back on a part-time or job-share basis. What if that doesn't work for the employer? An unreasonable refusal can be sex discrimination. A recent case showed that the employee doesn't have the absolute right to get the result she wants. She made the request and the employer made an effort - adverts were placed in three newspapers to try to find a person to fill a job-share, but no suitable applicants came forward. The employer turned down the woman's request. She would then have a choice - carry on with her full-time job as before, or resign. She claimed that this amounted to dismissal through sex discrimination and claimed compensation. The Employment Appeals Tribunal held that the employer had done nothing wrong. It did not have to do absolutely everything possible to try to accede to the employee's request. If there were real commercial or practical considerations which made the request unduly difficult to fulfil, that was all right under the law. Employees have many rights, but there are still limits on them. The main thing is that the employer has to act fairly and be seen to act fairly - it's essential to follow correct procedures and keep records to show that you did so. |
© Bayar Hughes & Co., 2010.