Brexit
Brexit page updated:
- The EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 has now received Royal Assent, so UK membership of the EU is set to end on 31st January 2020 under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement.
- However the UK will remain bound by almost all EU law during the ‘implementation period’ until the end of 2020 (unless extended).
- An important issue this year will be how far any agreement between the UK and EU on their future relationship includes restrictions on the UK’s ability to change employment rights and, if there are restrictions, how they are to be enforced: see Brexit>Any restrictions in EU agreement on future relationship?
- A change from the previous (pre-December) version of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill is that the government can make regulations allowing courts other than the Supreme Court to depart from EU case law made before the end of 2020 in some cases. It will be interesting to see what the regulations say. See Brexit>Regulations allowing departure from EU case law.
EHRC technical guidance on harassment at work
In January 2020 the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued technical guidance on Sexual harassment and harassment at work (EHRC website). It includes disability-related harassment. The EHRC has a news page on it.
Chapter 5 gives detailed guidance to employers on taking steps to prevent harassment and to respond to complaints of harassment.
I think an area of particular interest following recent case law is Third-party harassment, namely harassment by customers etc at work. Consistent with the Bessong case, the guidance says there may be a claim for indirect discrimination against an employer who fails to take appropriate action.
Employment services
Updates of –
- ‘Employment services’: agencies, careers advice, vocational training etc;
- Employment services: Technical issues on reasonable adjustment duty;
- Work experience.
GCSEs and A-levels
GCSE, A-levels and stammering/stuttering updated.
Other schools pages were updated last month: Resolving disputes in schools and Special Educational Needs (SEN) and stammering, including for the 2014 SEN Code of Practice.
Broken links
Finally finished correcting broken links to external websites. Took about eight months. It’s an ongoing job though as other links stop working.
- Previous updates: Website updates November to December 2019.
