Employment Law Case Study

This assignment presents a case study requiring a comprehensive analysis of employment law. Students must identify the relevant legislation and case law, assess potential legal and reputational risks for the organization involved in a discriminatory decision, and propose practical recommendations for achieving legal compliance and fostering a fair work environment. The analysis should draw upon academic and practitioner literature, including resources from organizations like CIPD and Acas, to address the challenges of ensuring line manager competency, employee understanding of discriminatory behaviors, and the allocation of responsibility for handling such issues. The assignment is divided into four questions, each carrying a different weight, focusing on identifying relevant laws, assessing risks, providing solutions, and preventing future occurrences of similar issues.

Case studies: structuring your
answers
Q1 – 10%
What law is relevant to this case? Your answers should indicate the relevant
section(s) of the law and explain how this applies to this issue (10%).
 Refer notes to identify the protected characteristic and the type(s) of discrimination
occurring
 Use Westlaw/PLC/Lexis PSL library to source the correct section of the law
 Think about the cases we have discussed in class: you may comment on the
likelihood of a claim, i.e. depending on the facts of the case, a claim for a certain
type of discrimination may be more likely to be raised and succeed, whereas there
may be potential grounds for a claim regarding another type of discrimination, but it
may be easier for the company to defend
Notes for your answer:

Q2 – 30%
What are the potential risks if the organisation breaches this law? You
should discuss the possible risks to the company if a potentially
discriminatory decision is made: your discussion here should identify and
explain the legal risks with reference to case law and could also make an
evaluation of the possible business/reputational risk associated with any
discrimination (30%).
 Use Westlaw/LPC/Lexis PSL to find relevant case law and consider how
this applies to this particular situation. In cases where the employer lost at
tribunal, what was it that they did or did not do that is similar to this case?
 What financial awards have been given to employees in similar cases? This
usually helps to influence employers to ‘do the right thing’
Notes for your answer:

Q3 – 30%
What are your recommendations to the organisation regarding the
steps it should take to ensure an outcome that is both legally
compliant and reasonable for the organisation? Your evaluation should
take into account the practical challenges of ensuring that employees act
fairly at work. In your recommendations, you should critically discuss the
work culture that has given rise to the issue (30%).
 Your answer on what the organisation should do to improve /resolve this
particular issue should be informed by your understanding of the case law
(i.e. what the case notes say an organisation did that was appropriate, what
an organisation should have done in a similar situation)
 You should also consider practitioner literature e.g. CIPD and Acas –they
provide step by step guidance on a range of equality issues in practice. Just
be careful you don’t repeat this content in your answer to Q4
 Draw on the theories has covered to explain the underlying workplace
culture that, arguably, has given rise to this situation
Notes for your answers:

Q4 – 30%
What are your recommendations to the organisation in respect of
avoiding the recurrence of this kind of issue? You should justify your
recommendations with reference to academic and/or practitioner literature
that considers good practice on this issue.
 Make sure your recommendations are specific
 Make sure that you demonstrate your understanding of the challenges that
organisations face in maintaining compliance to the equality law
 Draw on academic and practitioner literature that considers issues such as:
o The challenges of ensuring line managers are confident and
competent in applying equality law
o The challenges of ensuring that employees understand why and how
certain behaviours and decisions are discriminatory
o Who should take responsibility for dealing with issues such as this in
the organisation
Notes for your answers: