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Occupational requirements must be applied proportionately to avoid liability for discrimination

Adrian Fryer

Adrian Fryer

Paragraph 1 to schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010 sets out the general occupational requirement exception, which applies to direct discrimination claims. There will be no liability for direct discrimination where holding a particular protected characteristic (or, in some cases, not holding it) is an occupational requirement.

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The importance of early consultation with the workforce in redundancy situations

Adrian Fryer

Adrian Fryer

A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision reminds employers that it is crucially important that redundancy proposals are shared with the workforce at a formative stage. Failure to do so could make any resulting dismissals unfair. In Joseph de Bank Haycocks v ADP RPO UK Limited, the Claimant and the wider workforce were not consulted about redundancy proposals before pooling and scoring took place. The criteria for selection and the Claimant’s own scores were not provided to him before his dismissal. This information was, however, provided on appeal. The EAT held that the failure to consult at a formative stage meant that the dismissal was unfair. The EAT held that ‘whilst the appeal could correct any missing aspect of the individual consultation process (e.g. the provision of the claimant’s …scores), it could not repair [the] gap of consultation in the formative stage’.

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