In this mid-year issue of our employment and HR newsletter, we look at the top ten lessons in dismissal and discrimination that we can learn from case law so far this year. We also highlight the key employment law changes that took effect in April and preview what is expected over the next few months.

In Eversheds Legal Services Ltd v De Belin, Mr de Belin was put at risk of redundancy along with his colleague, Ms Reinholz. As part of the scoring criteria, Eversheds awarded points for “lock-up”, which is the time taken by the solicitors to receive fees for work completed for a client. This was to be calculated over the previous 12 month period. As Ms Reinholz was on maternity leave at that time, it was not possible to calculate her lock-up and so she was awarded the highest possible score of 2. Mr de Belin however, only achieved 0.5. As a result, his overall score was 0.5 less than Ms Reinholz and he was selected for redundancy. His claims of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination were upheld on appeal by Eversheds to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”).