News 3 - 15 February 2021

 

The TUC has called for a further extension of the furlough scheme in order to save jobs.(1)  Con-tractor UK raises the issue of the HMRC checking LinkedIn accounts to see whether self-employed contractors have claimed the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme fraudulently.(2)  RLB law looks at the requirements for paying sick pay to employees in Covid related situations.(3)  BCLP address the almost inevitable likelihood that long COVID will constitute a ‘disability’ under the Equality Act 2010 in the future.(4)   We also bring you an article which looks at the increased use of aggressive tactics by employers against their employees during the Covid pandemic.(5)   Our final Covid article looks at the increasingly concerning issue of the blurring of boundaries for home based workers dur-ing the COVID ‘lockdowns’ and the unrealistic expectations from their employers.(6)   Then there is the issue of ‘whistleblowing’ during the pandemic.(7)  

 

Discrimination features heavily in this weeks edition, as usual.  We start with an article which looks at the ongoing difficulties faced by women in ‘power positions’ who seek to have a family and take maternity leave.(8)   Building on stories highlighted in previous articles Kingsley Napley look at the increasing levels of sexual harassment faced by women in the virtual workplace.(9)   This week we have three discrimination cases of note one relating to race discrimination,(10)   and the other two relate to sexual discrimination, the first indirectly,(11)  and the second on the basis of

victimisation. (12)   

 

As usual with the news we dedicate paragraph 3 to those stories which are related to neither Covid or discrimination such as their popularity in our times.  Firstly we have an article which examines employee confidentiality and data theft.(13)    On another front we look at how Arcadia staff are preparing to take on Sir Philip Green since the collapse of his infamous retail empire.(14)   We have an article which examines the role of a Trade Union in employment disputes.(15) How about a ‘brief history of whistleblowing’ for those with a taste for employment cases with a hint of John Le Carré or Hollywood? (16)  The TUC look at the vital role Health & Safety Reps have played over the last year,(17)   and closer to home, the value of trade unions to the East Midlands during the COVID pandemic.(18)   Finally, we have an article by Hardwicke on LGBT month.(19)