Michael Ford QC is a Professor of Law at the University of Bristol, a QC at Old Square Chambers and a fee-paid Employment Judge. His principal areas of research and practice are labour law, EU law and human rights, on which he has written widely. He is on the EHRC ‘A’ panel of specialist counsel and was Employment Silk of the Year in 2015. He recently advised the TUC on the implications of Brexit for workers’ rights. His real interest in life is cycling (e.g. 4th Tour of the Peak, 5th Ronde de L’Oise).
Content by Author
The Long and Winding Road of Caste Legislation in the UK
The power to make caste discrimination an aspect of race discrimination, originally contained in s.9(5) of the Equality Act 2010 (EqA), was one of the few substantive supplements to the predecessor discrimination legislation. In 2013 ...
Brexit and Worker Rights
It is now pretty well-known that most of the employment rights in the UK are guaranteed by EU law—the principal exceptions being unfair dismissal and the national minimum wages—as I explained in a recent advice for the TUC. UK ...
Griffiths v Department of Work and Pensions: Adjusting Reasonable Adjustments
What is it that UK courts don’t get about positive treatment in discrimination law? A book could be written on the historical wrong turns they’ve been persuaded to take over the years when it comes to duties to adjust practices to ...
UNISON v Lord Chancellor: The Statistics of Tribunal Fees in the Court of Appeal
As discussed previously on the Blog, fees in the employment tribunal were introduced across England, Wales and Scotland in July 2013, requiring a claimant to pay fees when presenting a claim and before a hearing. The figures accepted ...
Caste Discrimination under UK law: Chandhok v Tirkey
The extent to which the Equality Act 2010 (EqA) protects against discrimination on grounds of caste was a vexed question, which finally reached an appellate court in Chandhok v Tirkey [2015] IRLR 195. The Employment Appeal Tribunal ...
USDAW v Ethel Austin in the ECJ
The recent judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-80/14, USDAW v Woolworths (30 April 2015) is a further indication that social Europe is no longer its cherished offspring. The detail is of interest to labour lawyers but the ...
The Impact of Fees in the Tribunal
Fees for bringing claims in the employment tribunal were introduced in August 2013. Since then, the Ministry of Justice’s statistics have revealed a huge decline in the number of claims. The latest statistics, available here, continue ...
New employment tribunal fees and discrimination: UNISON v Lord Chancellor; Equality and Human Rights Commission
The High Court (Moses LJ, Irwin J) today delivered judgment in the important judicial review proceedings brought by UNISON to challenge the fees regime introduced in the employment tribunal and EAT. The Court rejected the application ...
