Legislation protects employees from victimisation

Citation

Pitt, M. (2010), "Legislation protects employees from victimisation", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2010.04418eab.001

Legislation protects employees from victimisation

Article Type: Employment law outlook From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 18, Issue 5

The Underworld garment factory in UK television soap Coronation Street has never been known as the home of harmonious industrial relations.

When a cantankerous machinist threatened to take the then-boss Mike Baldwin to an employment tribunal for insisting that she work overtime to get out a last-minute order, he told her menacingly: “I have a terrible memory – I never forget a thing.”

This piece of bravado could easily have landed the roguish Mike on the wrong side of legislation that protects employees against victimization by their boss.

Under these rules, employers are forbidden to treat an employee who brings or takes action over a discrimination, harassment or equal-pay claim less favorably than his or her colleagues.

The rules are intended to make sure that employees are not deterred from bringing a claim, or helping others to do so, for fear of reprisals. They apply to the various discrimination laws on sex, race, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.

Employees can claim to have been victimized if they are treated less favorably than their colleagues for:

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  bringing proceedings against the boss;

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  giving evidence or information to do with proceedings someone else has brought against the boss; or

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  alleging that the boss, or anyone else, has broken discrimination laws.

Bosses are also guilty of victimization for handing out less favorable treatment to anyone they suspect of merely intending to do any of these things.

The law does not, however, apply to treatment of employees “by reason of any allegation that was false and not made in good faith”.

A person can still claim victimization even after moving to work for someone else. This would happen, for example, if a former employer refused to give a reference to an ex-employee who had previously brought a case against the firm.

Meanwhile, if your workplace has more than a couple of dozen employees, the chances are that at least one of your colleagues will be trying to juggle job responsibilities with caring for an elderly, sick or injured relative.

They may, for example, be involved in the long-term care of someone who is terminally ill, or simply looking after a person who has had an accident and will be better in a few weeks.

Carers UK reports that half of Britain’s six million carers are also working. There are likely to be nine million carers by 2036. Three in five Britons will end up caring for someone at some point in their lives. And the chances of a person now aged 24 becoming a carer will have trebled by the time they are 59.

The main reasons are the ageing population and the trend towards smaller families and more people living alone.

The Government feared that, if nothing was done, more and more carers would simply drop out of the labor market. It therefore decided to give them more rights to change their working patterns to fit around their caring responsibilities.

Since April 2007, carers in the UK have been able to ask their employers for flexible working under the Work and Families Act 2006. Employers are not compelled to grant the request, but they will have to consider it seriously and have specific business grounds for turning it down.

In this respect, the right is similar to that which already applies to employees with young or disabled children.

The Act applies to employees caring for their spouse, partner, civil partner, “near relative” or someone who lives at the same address. “Near relative” is a wide category that covers mother, father, adopter, guardian, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt or grandparent.

The right is already affecting employees’ expectations. As a result, many employers have come to feel that they must rethink the issue of their working patterns.

This should not be done grudgingly. After all, there is a strong business case for supporting employees with caring responsibilities because it does not make sense to risk losing skilled staff.

Mike PittEmployment-law partner at Greater Manchester solicitor Pearson Hinchliffe Commercial Law. He can be contacted by e-mailing michael.pitt@pearson-hinchlif.co.uk, or telephoning +44 (0)161-785 3500.