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This is our selection of the recent developments which we think will have the most significant impact on HR practice.
1. Supreme Court saves otherwise unenforceable non-compete covenant
The Supreme Court (the UK's highest court) has ruled that courts can in effect delete any part of a restriction in an employment contract that is too wide or too restrictive and enforce what's left. The Court clarified when courts are entitled to edit contracts in this way.
For historic reasons only, the section of an employment contract which contains restrictions on what an employee can do is known as the restrictive covenant. The Courts police carefully this type of agreement. It is well-established law that a restrictive covenant will only be enforceable if the employer has a legitimate business interest to protect and the protection sought is no more than is reasonably necessary to protect that interest. In assessing reasonableness and in order to get the balance right, the court will consider whether some lesser restriction would give the employer enough protection.
T, a senior employee of an executive search firm, tried to extricate herself from a non-compete restriction which provided that she would not for six months after the end of her employment "directly or indirectly engage or be concerned or interested in any business carried on in competition with any business of the Company…". She argued that this restriction had such a wide scope that it prevented her from even having a small shareholding in a competitor – which meant it went much further than necessary to protect the company and so could not be enforced against her.
The Supreme Court agreed that the clause did have this meaning but decided that the words ‘or interested’ - which did go too far by preventing T having a shareholding in a competitor - could be removed from the restriction without altering the meaning of the remaining words. As the restriction without these words was reasonable in context, the rest of the restriction could be enforced against her.
The injunction which had previously been granted by the High Court to prevent T from breaching her non-compete restriction, but then overturned by the Court of Appeal, was reinstated - even though the period of the non-compete restriction had long since expired.
The Supreme Court said the test for deciding whether words which make a restrictive covenant unreasonable can be deleted in employment cases is that:
(i) words can only be removed if there is no need to add to or modify the wording that remains; and
(ii) removal of the words should not generate any major change in the overall legal effect of all the post-employment restraints in the contract.
Practical point
While employers have welcomed this decision, it is nonetheless a good idea to review the restrictions (not just any non-compete restrictions) in your standard employment contracts and:
See our detailed update on this decision: Supreme Court saves otherwise unenforceable non-compete covenant in Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd
2. Disability discrimination – perceived disability
The Court of Appeal has ruled that it is discriminatory to refuse employment because of a perception that a health condition will affect an employee's ability to work in future.
C, a police officer, suffered from mild hearing loss. Her condition had not caused her any problems in her job - she was able to do her 'normal day-to-day activities' - so it did not constitute a disability. She applied to transfer to another police force but was not accepted because a pre-employment health assessment showed her hearing was just outside the standards for recruitment and there was a concern about recruiting an officer who they feared would in the future be restricted in the duties she could carry out, as this would reduce the pool of officers who were operationally deployable.
C brought a direct discrimination claim on the basis that:
The Court of Appeal noted that the police were influenced by stereotypical assumptions about the effects of hearing loss. It said the police's perception of a risk that she would not be able to work in the future indicated she was perceived to have a disability in the form of a progressive condition.
This Court of Appeal decision is the first to consider whether direct discrimination covers less favourable treatment based on a perceived protected characteristic. The Court said it did, and that such a claim does not depend on whether the employee is presumed to be disabled as a matter of law - but whether they are perceived to have an impairment which is likely to have a substantial effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities in the future.
Practical point
This decision confirms that claims can be brought based on a perception of disability.
This case highlights the dangers of making assumptions about an employee’s health when making decisions relating to their employment, particularly where the employee has or could develop a progressive condition. Instead, employers should base their decisions on medical advice on the employee's condition.
Chief Constable of Norfolk v Coffey
3. Gender equality roadmap published
The Government Equalities Office has published Gender equality at every stage: a roadmap for change which sets out the Government's proposals to tackle eight key drivers of gender inequality.
The key proposals to tackle gender inequality include:
Strengthening equality legislation
Closing the gender pay gap
Review of shared parental leave and pay scheme
The effectiveness of the shared parental leave and pay schemes is currently under review and should be completed by the end of 2019. The Government will consult on increasing the transparency of organisations' parental leave and pay policies and on improving the availability of flexible working in job adverts.
Employment rights for carers
The Government confirms its manifesto commitment to launch a consultation on a new right to carers' leave, although no timeframe is given.
Pensions equalisation
The Government plans to monitor the impact of equalising participation rates in workplace pension schemes to tackle the structural inequalities that lead to the private pensions gap.
Practical point:
This roadmap suggests that the Government is serious about trying to tackle gender inequality in the workplace. But as the proposals include potential changes to employment law it is unlikely that these changes will happen quickly.
4. #Metoo: Recommendations on confidentiality clause in discrimination and harassment cases
The Women and Equalities Select Committee has now published its report, making a number of recommendations, which comes after the Government's consultation on the regulation of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in cases of workplace harassment and discrimination.
Following the Select Committee's report on sexual harassment in the workplace in July 2018, it launched an inquiry into the use of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions - often referred to as NDAs - in settlement agreements in discrimination and harassment cases.
This latest report makes a number of recommendations, including:
Practical point
It seems unlikely that the Government will accept all the Committee's recommendations, given that they are far-reaching and some have already been rejected by the Government. Some of the more onerous proposals which the Government will probably be reluctant to endorse include making employers pay additional legal costs to negotiate confidentiality provisions and introducing additional reporting requirements for employers, particularly as gender pay gap reporting may be extended to smaller employers and the ethnicity pay reporting may also be introduced.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmwomeq/1720/172002.htm
5. #Metoo Government consultation on harassment in the workplace
As promised (see Gender equality roadmap above), the Government published a further consultation on 11 July 2019 to explore some of the concerns raised by the Women and Equalities Select Committee in their 2018 report. This follows the consultation earlier this year on the use of NDAs and wider confidentiality clauses in sexual harassment cases.
The consultation acknowledges that sexual harassment in the workplace persists at "a startling rate", despite the strong and clear protections provided by the Equality Act 2010. The Government is now exploring the concerns raised by the Select Committee, with a view to ensuring that our legislation is operating effectively.
The consultation explores:
The current consultation is open until 2 October 2019.
Practical point:
The Government will be carrying out a survey over the summer to help it target and tailor its proposed solutions.
This consultation suggests that the government is committed to doing more to try and tackle sexual harassment in the workplace.
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