Matt's Employment Law and HR Update - 5 January 2022

Welcome to the first edition of our weekly employment law and HR newsletter. These newsletters will provide you with regular snapshots of the developments in employment law and HR. Depending on the news that week - some may be short....and some may be long.

So as we start a new year, what news do we have to start the year off with?

Fit Notes - rules change

On 17 December the government introduced the Statutory Sick Pay (Medical Evidence) Regulations 2021 which changes the rules regarding self certification and fit note timescales. Previously, employees would need to visit their GP to obtain a Fit Note after 7 days to continue to certify their absence for the purposes of Statutory Sick Pay requirements and also (normally) company sickness absence procedures and company sick pay requirements.

The rules have now been amended so that employees now only need to get GP certification after 28 days. This will only remain in place until 26 January 2022. The reason for the change is to release pressure on GP surgeries at a time when the COVID booster vaccine programme is under way.

These rules will remain in place until 26 January 2022, unless of course the government decides to extend the period.

Will employers be required to mandatory publish data about disabilities?

The government has launched a consultation on mandatory reporting by employers regarding disability at work.

To give you some background to this. In November 2017, in response to the "Thriving at Work" report as part of the Stevenson / Farmer review of mental health in the workplace, the government launched a voluntary framework on the reporting of disability, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. The voluntary framework set out that employers would report on:

• a narrative to explain the action taken to recruit and retain disabled workers; and
• a statistical report on the percentage of individuals within the workplace who consider themselves to be disabled.

The consultation that is now underway regarding making this voluntary scheme mandatory - as well as looking at adjustments to the scheme. This is as part of the government's National Disability Strategy published in July 2021. The consultation will close on 25 March 2022 and the response from the government to the consultation is intended to be published by 17 June 2022.

Reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004

The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee has published a report severely criticising the government's response to the Government Equalities Office consultation on the Gender Recognition Act 2004, published in September 2020.

The report states that the GRA is no longer fit for purpose, and is in urgent need of reform, primarily to strengthen transgender rights but also to provide clarity for employers and service providers. One recommendation of particular relevance to employers is to review the use and application of the occupational requirement?exception in the Equality Act 2010, which allows employers to impose a requirement that certain jobs can only be open to people who are not transgender, having regard to the nature and context of the work.?

This is important from a legislative point of view and also as part of how the courts and tribunals are addressing the issue of transgender and gender fluidity, identity and dysmorphia in the workplace. We are currently awaiting the Employment Appeal Tribunal decision in the case of Mackereth v the Department for Work and Pensions. This was a case in which a Christian doctor refused to address patients by their preferred pronouns. He lost his employment tribunal case because they concluded that his beliefs (that a person cannot choose their gender) was not compatible with human dignity. We will keep you informed of developments in this area. Other relevant recent cases in this area include Taylor v JaguarLandRover and Forstater v GD Europe.

Mental health causing half of all work related absences

A new report published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found that stress, anxiety and depression caused half of all work-related illness in the past 12 months. 850,000 workers suffered from a new case of work-related ill health in 2020/2021 and 451,000 people reported that this was stress, anxiety or depression.

The rate of self-reported stress, anxiety and depression had been trending upwards before the pandemic but the rate has continued in that direction. Before the pandemic, the main causes for these experiences were workload, lack of support, violence, threats or bullying and changes at work.

The effects of the pandemic are now also contributory factors.

The demographic most likely to report work-related stress, anxiety and depression is women aged 25 to 34

Our webinar updates

Don't miss out on our webinar updates which are available here . Our latest update from October 2021 is shown below.

Podcasts too!

We also publish regular Podcasts on employment law and HR. These are available on all your regular podcast applications. Either search for "Matt's Employment Law Update" or click here .

This newsletter is intended for information purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Please contact us for specific and tailored advice.