Liability of employers and employees

By Tolley in association with Hogan Lovells

The following Employment Tax guidance note by Tolley in association with Hogan Lovells provides comprehensive and up to date tax information covering:

Liability of employers and employees
Vicarious liability of employers
Liability for agents
Employers’ liability for the actions for third parties
Liability of employees and agents
Instructing, causing or inducing contraventions
Aiding contraventions

An employer may be liable for contraventions of the Equality Act 2010:

•on its own behalf
•vicariously, for the acts of its employees
•as principal, for the acts of its agents
•by third parties, in the case of persistent harassment of employees

Employees and agents may also be personally liable for their own contraventions of the Equality Act 2010 (see ‘Liability of employees and agents’ below), provided the employer or principal is vicariously liable for it as well, or would be but for the fact that the employer establishes the employer’s defence (see defences to vicarious liability under ‘Vicarious liability of employers’ below).

An employer, principal, employee or agent may also be liable for:

•instructing, causing or inducing contraventions of the Equality Act 2010
•aiding contraventions of the Equality Act 2010

Vicarious liability of employers

An employer will be liable for any contravention of the Equality Act 2010 committed by a person it employs, provided that the act that constitutes the contravention is done in the course of that person’s employment.

EqA 2010, s 109(1)

A very broad variety of acts will be treated as being done ‘in the course of employment’. Protection is not restricted just to situations where the employee performs an act that they are required to do as part of their job, and does so in a discriminatory way. The context in which the act was performed matters more than the nature of the act itself, so important considerations will include factors such as whether or not: