Employment Law Case Update

Redundancy scoring favouring employee on maternity leave confirmed as sex discrimination against male colleague

The EAT has agreed with the tribunal in Eversheds v De Belin that a male employee had been discriminated against when his employer gave a female colleague on maternity leave a notional maximum score in a matrix which resulted in him being selected for redundancy rather than her. The EAT held that although employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave sometimes need to be treated more favourably than their colleagues, this protection does not extend to favouring them beyond what is necessary to compensate them for disadvantages from their condition. Employers should ensure that scoring in these circumstances is done as far as possible on objective criteria which can actually be measured.

Surveillance film – don't jump to conclusions

Employers should ensure that if they intend to rely on surveillance film when dismissing an employee who is off sick, that they seek a professional medical opinion on what the film appears to show. In Pacey v Caterpillar Logistics the employer dismissed an employee who was absent on sick leave with a back injury for gross misconduct for falsely claiming sick pay when he was filmed walking, carrying shopping and cleaning his car. However, the tribunal criticised the employer for not seeking a medical opinion on whether what the employee was filmed doing was consistent with the reason for his absence and found the dismissal unfair.

Compromise agreements

The EAT has...