Employment Briefing 20/02/2025

Protected Disclosures: Was Reassignment a Detriment?

Under whistleblowing laws, employees are protected from detrimental treatment after making a protected disclosure. In Ford v The Scottish Ministers, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered whether moving an employee to a different team after whistleblowing was a detriment.

Mr. Ford, a pensions administrator, raised concerns about police injury benefit cases and was later reassigned. He claimed this was punitive. The EAT found the original tribunal failed to assess this properly and sent the case back for review.

This Irwin Mitchell briefing highlights the need for employers to ensure workplace reassignments aren’t seen as retaliation.

Teacher Sacked Over LGBTQ+ Social Media Posts Wins Landmark Appeal

Kristie Higgs, a Christian teaching assistant, was dismissed in 2019 from Farmor’s School in Gloucestershire for gross misconduct after sharing social media posts critical of LGBTQ+ education. She argued her dismissal was discriminatory and a violation of her right to express religious beliefs.

The Employment Tribunal initially ruled against Higgs, stating the school dismissed her due to concerns over how her posts might be perceived, rather than because of her religious beliefs. However, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) overturned this decision, finding her dismissal unlawfully discriminatory and a disproportionate response.

The Court of Appeal upheld this ruling, emphasizing that expressing religious views—however controversial—is protected under the Equality Act 2010. This case highlights the ongoing legal debate between freedom of speech, religious expression, and workplace inclusivity.

The full article can be read here

SOSR Dismissals: Tantrums, Troublemakers and Trust

Irwin Mitchell recently held a webinar on SOSR dismissals. The webinar explored common issues that lead to breakdown of relationships and explain at what point can you say “enough is enough” and fairly bring the relationship to an end.

The webinar also covered what reasonableness looks like in the context of a SOSR (some other substantial reason) dismissal; whether you need to follow the Acas Code of Practice on discipline and the ‘red flags’ you need to consider.

The webinar covered the most common scenarios, including:

• Employees who don’t fit in because of their personality/ management style/ behaviour or attitude

• Employees who are never happy and raise one grievance after another

• Pressure from third parties you have a contractual relationship with to get rid of certain employees assigned to them.

If you were not able to attend the session, a copy of the recording can be found here.

McLaren Competition

The DfE’s Teach in FE campaign and McLaren have launched the Skills Drive Competition. To be in with a chance of competing in an exclusive final at McLaren’s Technology Centre in Woking (home to supercar manufacturer McLaren Automotive and the McLaren Formula 1 team) Engineering and automotive FE teachers need to complete a short entry form showcasing how they share their skills to inspire their students. Three shortlisted teachers will be invited to form a team of students for a tour of McLaren’s iconic headquarters and to take part in a series of challenges to determine the winning team. Find out more here including how to apply. Closing date: 25 February 2025 at 17:00

AoC Equity Exchange Events

March sees two Equity Exchange events being hosted by colleges: 6 March at Nottingham College and 13 March at Peter Symonds College. It would be great to see you and/or colleagues there and you can find out more at this link.

Targeted Retention Incentive (TRI)

We recently had a meeting with the TRI team at DfE. In that meeting, DfE highlighted the importance of applications being authorised by employers as soon as possible, particularly as the application deadline approaches (end of March). Currently, applications are experiencing delays in being processed (once authorised), as they are referred to the student loans company as part of DfE’s process, which appears to be adding to the SLA.

There could potentially be tax implications involved for employees if they receive their TRI payment from April 2025 onwards, especially if the employee intends on applying for the scheme again next academic year and receives their second payment before April 2026. Effectively, in this scenario, the employee will receive two payments within the same tax year, which *may* drag them into a higher tax bracket – hence the need to authorise any outstanding applications as soon as possible so TRI payments for this academic year can (hopefully) be made before April.

FE HR Induction

Thank you to those that have expressed interest in our FE HR Induction programme. The induction aims to give an overview of FE, providing valuable knowledge on our sector, as well as the challenges we face from a HR and industrial relations perspective.

Our next induction will run on 26 February 2025, which has been fully booked. An additional session will be held in March to facilitate the high number of sign-ups we have received.

Should you have any staff that you feel would benefit from the induction, please email antony.hines@aoc.co.uk and they will be added to an attendance list when the next date becomes available.

AoC HR Community (LinkedIn)

This is a space for HR staff to connect, collaborate and share expertise on everyday challenges that face our sector. We encourage all HR staff within the membership to join the community and contribute in any way possible. This is an informal, social space to share successes within our industry across FE and be kept up to date with the latest HR trends/news.

For you and your wider team to join, please click here, and ‘request to join’. An admin for the group will authorise your request.

HR Networks

The following HR network meetings are arranged for the remainder of this term:

AoC contacts

For further information about anything in this briefing please contact Jo Taylor at jo.taylor@aoc.co.uk or Antony Hines at antony.hines@aoc.co.uk