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GLOSSARY

Harassment definition

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What does Harassment mean?

The concept whereby an employee suffers from the conduct of, or an act by, an employer or another person which is in the form of harassment.

Harassment can occur by way of bullying in the workplace or on the basis of discrimination. In the latter case, there the definition for harassment is unwanted conduct on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation etc. which has the purpose or effect of either violating the claimant's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.

Employment

The concept whereby an employee suffers from the conduct of, or an act by, an employer or another person which is in the form of harassment.

Harassment can occur by way of bullying in the workplace or on the basis of discrimination. In the latter case, there the definition for harassment is unwanted conduct on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation etc. which has the purpose or effect of either violating the claimant's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.

Harassment - Legal Definition

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Unfair commercial practices—checklist

Unfair commercial practices—checklist This Checklist considers the key practices, actions and omissions amounting to unfair, misleading or aggressive commercial practices under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, SI 2008/1277 (CPUTR 2008), which may lead to criminal prosecution, regulatory action and adverse publicity. Consumers also have private rights of redress, including the right to unwind the contract, the right to a discount and the right to seek damages. It considers the changes that the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA 2024) will bring about. All commercial practices need to be considered and checked to ensure that they do not breach these requirements. These include marketing techniques; traders should consider in particular new media techniques, which can sometimes be unclear to consumers as being commercial activity. For more information on the CPUTR 2008, see Practice Notes: • The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, and • Private right of redress for consumers See also: Advertising law and regulation—overview and Sales and marketing—overview. The DMCCA 2024 In July 2021, BEIS,...

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Hybrid working—checklist of issues to consider

Hybrid working—checklist of issues to consider This Checklist sets out the key considerations for the employer when deciding whether to introduce a hybrid working scheme, sometimes known as agile working, blended working or split working patterns or arrangements, where staff attend the workplace for part of their working time and work from home or elsewhere remotely (remote working) for part of their working time. For further information on the issues noted here, and in relation to hybrid working generally, see Practice Note: Hybrid working. Acas has published guidance on working from home and hybrid working, comprising: • home and hybrid working requests • wellbeing when working from home • home and hybrid working policies • managing staff who work from home Review and consultation • Consider the need for review in light of any changes to the needs of the organisation or individual employees • Review the outcome of a trial period, if relevant • Review policies and consult employees and their representatives to discuss how things are going and...

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Harassment

This Practice Note considers harassment under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010), namely subjecting someone to unwanted conduct which is related to a relevant protected characteristic (race, sex etc), where the conduct has the purpose or effect of violating the victim's dignity or creating an environment that is intimidating (eg bullying), hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive.Sexual harassment (ie unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which has the requisite purpose or effect), and the duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment, are dealt with separately in Practice Note: Sexual harassment and the duty to prevent it.The Practice Note also considers the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (PHA 1997) (see: Protection from Harassment Act 1997, below).This Practice Note contains references to case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). For guidance on whether judgments of the CJEU are binding on UK courts, see Practice Note: Assimilated law—Assimilated case law.Domestic laws that implement UK obligations under EU law are assimilated law. For further information, see Practice Note: Assimilated law.EHRC...

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Employment events which give rise to discrimination, harassment and victimisation claims

This Practice Note sets out the circumstances in which claims of discrimination, harassment and victimisation and certain other claims, known as ‘prohibited conduct’ claims under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010), may arise, before, during and after employment.This Practice Note contains references to case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). For guidance on whether judgments of the CJEU are binding on UK courts, see Practice Note: Assimilated law—Assimilated case law.Domestic laws that have been made to implement UK obligations under EU law (such as the obligation to implement a Directive) were retained EU-derived domestic legislation under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EU(W)A 2018). From 1 January 2024, under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023, EU-derived domestic legislation is ‘assimilated’ into domestic law by virtue of the fact it is generally stripped of EU-derived interpretive effects (eg supremacy of EU law, directly effective rights, and general principles previously retained under EU(W)A 2018). For more information, see Practice Note: Assimilated law.The meaning of...

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Policy—Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination [Archived]

Policy—Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination [Archived] 1 Introduction 1.1 This policy sets out the Company’s approach to staff vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19). It supplements, but does not replace, the Company’s health and safety[, coronavirus workplace safety] and sickness absence policies. 1.2 This policy does not form part of any contract of employment and the Company may amend it at any time. 1.3 This policy applies to all employees, workers and contractors. 1.4 This policy has been written [following discussions OR in consultation] with [the recognised trade union OR employee representatives OR a representative group of employees]. 1.5 The information set out in this policy is taken from guidance on the NHS and other government websites that are updated frequently. While we will try to keep this policy up-to-date, we strongly recommend that all staff familiarise themselves with the relevant NHS and other guidance and check regularly for updates. We will also issue updates to staff, typically by email, if changes to the government guidance affect this policy....

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Policy and procedure—whistleblowing

Policy and procedure—whistleblowing 1 Purpose and scope 1.1 All organisations face the risk of things going wrong or of unknowingly harbouring malpractice. 1.2 The Company takes malpractice very seriously. We are committed to conducting our business with honesty and integrity and we expect all staff to maintain high standards too. We encourage open communication from all those who work for us and we want everyone to feel secure about raising concerns.[ The Company will provide regular training to all staff in relation to whistleblowing law and this policy.] 1.3 All staff have protection under whistleblowing laws if they raise concerns in the correct way. This policy is designed to give staff that opportunity and protection. 1.4 It does not matter if an individual who raises a concern is mistaken about it—staff do not have to prove anything about the allegation they are making but they must reasonably believe that the disclosure is made in the public interest and that the information they have tends to show some malpractice. 1.5 This...

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Within ongoing proceedings for a child arrangements order, one of the parents wishes to change their name following harassment and stalking by the other parent. Are they able to inform the court of the new name without the other parent being informed and if so what is the procedure? Are there any implications of not informing the court of the new name, particularly as regards implementation of the child arrangements order?

Within ongoing proceedings for a child arrangements order, one of the parents wishes to change their name following harassment and stalking by the other parent. Are they able to inform the court of the new name without the other parent being informed and if so what is the procedure? Are there any implications of not informing the court of the new name, particularly as regards implementation of the child arrangements order? Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, 29.1 provides that unless the court requires otherwise, a party is not required to reveal: '(a) the party’s home address or other contact details; (b) the address or other contact details of any child; (c) the name of a person with whom the child is living, if that person is not the applicant, or (d) in relation to an application under s.28(2) of the 2002 Act (application to change a child’s surname), the proposed new surname of the child' The procedure in such a situation is that the party who does...

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Where an employee has insufficient length of service to claim unfair dismissal, could they nevertheless bring a claim in the employment tribunal (ET) on the basis that the employer breached their contract of employment such that it terminated their employment? What is the ET’s jurisdiction to hear a breach of contract claim in those circumstances?

Where an employee has insufficient length of service to claim unfair dismissal, could they nevertheless bring a claim in the employment tribunal (ET) on the basis that the employer breached their contract of employment such that it terminated their employment? What is the ET’s jurisdiction to hear a breach of contract claim in those circumstances? Where an employee has insufficient length of service to bring an unfair dismissal claim under the statutory regime set out in Part X of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) (ERA 1996, s 94), if the circumstances of the termination are not such that the statutory qualifying period for bringing a statutory claim is reduced or dispensed with entirely, any termination of their employment will need to be considered in terms of common law principles. For further information, see Practice Note: Qualifying period for unfair dismissal. Under common law, if an employer dismisses an employee in breach of contract, eg dismissal without notice due under the contract, then such a dismissal would be wrongful. For...

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Immigration weekly highlights—12 December 2024

Welcome to the 12 December 2024 highlights from the Immigration team, which provides links to key news stories from the last week, as well as a round-up of new and updated content in Immigration.

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Share Incentives weekly highlights—12 December 2024

This week's edition of Share Incentives weekly highlights includes (1) in relation to employee benefit trusts, the cases of JTC Employer Solutions Trustee Ltd v Garnett and also MR Currell Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners, (2) the Welsh Government publishing its Budget for 2025–26, and (3) a consultation published by the Financial Conduct Authority which includes proposals for updating the FCA’s Handbook to align with the new edition of the UK Corporate Governance Code that was published in January 2024.

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