A harm test has been adopted by employment tribunals when considering
requests to work part-time in cases brought under the Sex Discrimination Act.
The following criteria are typically taken into account during a harm test:
– The work requires continuity of service
– It is not possible to do the job at the times the employee wants to work
– The employee has supervisory responsibilities and there are no suitable
means to delegate part of their responsibilities
– The job involves team work
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– The cost of training someone else to do the remaining time or parts of the
job would be prohibitive
– The nature of the work is such that it cannot be split
