Ryan Clement

DAY FOUR of a writer’s diary

Ryan Clement

TODAY, I met a couple, Fred and Ginger (not their real names for privacy reasons) from Liverpool. Lovely couple. I was talking to someone else about football and Fred mentioned that he was a football fan and supported Liverpool FC, where he is a season ticket holder. He sits in the Kop. I told him that I go to Anfield about half-a-dozen times a season and sit in the Main Stand (The Kop is to my right). We exchanged numbers whilst ‘talking football,’ the recent tragic loss of Diogo Jota and André Silva, and where I should park my car on my next trip to Anfield to avoid sitting in my car for nearly two hours simply to exit the city of Liverpool. We plan to meet when I am next at Anfield. Like I said, ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. I thought of a scene, which I noted immediately after I returned to my room. YNWA!🧣

AS FOR KOS TOWN, it was superb and much better than I had realised from the videos I had seen before flying out. To be fair, no video could truly capture its vibrancy and attraction. I left my hotel at 4.30pm (about 1 hour drive) and arrived back at around 11pm.

It was a case of enjoying and observing anything I could use as part of my collection of writer’s tools. There were plenty. I have been to a few places and this place is up there with the best. Las Vegas is still unparalleled for the amount of material, – seeing is believing – but this place has history!

ON THE WRITING FRONT, I am back on schedule. I shall finish Day Six tomorrow before watching Disney’s The Lion King 🎥 on the big screen on the beach 🏖️. Andey, my editor, has already asked for a copy of what I have completed so far (around 80 solid pages), especially after finding a typo in yesterday’s blog, which I corrected immediately “wonder” instead of “wander,” and that’s written by someone with a BA (Hon) in English! 😩 I sense a distinct panic over the amount of editing that may be require to meet the deadline. Oops! But we all have them, right? 🤔 My aim is to finish the first draft of the book before I fly back to the U.K., and gladly hand it over, only to see the final version when it is done, dusted and completed. The aim is to have it ready for publication on 15 August 2025. I then move on to the next. However, before I can continue with my fictional project, I shall be updating Race Relations for the third edition. I hope to have that ready by 30 September 2025, as I have a few big heavy cases to do!

So, tomorrow I write more ✍🏾

DAY ONE of a writer’s diary

DAY TWO of a writer’s diary

DAY THREE of a writer’s diary.

DAY THREE of a writer’s diary

Ryan Clement

TODAY, I walked onto the balcony to (re)observe the scene before opening my computer to continue with writing Day Six of the book. The sunrise was simply indescribable. Nature and the Natural World at their very best. I then had company 🐦🐤 and we three peacefully enjoyed the beautiful scenery together. ⛰️☀️⛰️. They reassured me that today was going to be a Lovely Day. I relied on their wisdom, as I was sure that they had witnessed this view many times before as I, too, had the pleasure of witnessing in my short time here.

THE WRITING was solid today rather than plentiful. This part was the final hurdle that would be at a slower pace than the remainder. Why so? I wanted to remind myself of the source of some technical information and ended up reading more than was necessary for the piece I wanted to write ✍🏾. I read a couple of judgments that were unrelated to what I was about to pen, or I should say type! 💻

NOTWITHSTANDING this slight but interesting digression, I received a lot of quality material from Caz on neurodiversity. We shall have some good news to announce on that score, so watch this space, so to speak! 👀

TOMORROW, I am off to Kos town. A wander around will undoubtedly be inspirational. It is surprising how much is stored in the subconsciousness for later use. When I wrote Like Father, Like Son many moons ago, I was amazed at how much material would be available in my bank of consciousness transferred over from my secured vault of subconsciousness. Little past matters and incidents of observations that seemed so immaterial at the time became the perfect source of material on which to draw when searching for that realistic, ‘tell or show,’ description that aptly fits the scene. I rest it there!

So, tomorrow I write more ✍🏾

DAY ONE of a writer’s diary

DAY TWO of a writer’s diary

Ryan Clement

AS I SAID, today was initially set aside solely for editing. But my legal professional commitments prevented this from happening. So I decided that I would start writing Day Six for around 2 hours, go for breakfast (which I do not normally have when at home) and do some editing on the parts completed for another few hours before chilling by the pool. I am still old fashioned in the sense that I love to read and edit my first and last/final draft versions on hardcopies, using red ink. There is something rewarding in seeing it in print. Editing electronically is convenient, but it’s not the same. Unless you track your editing, there is no evidence of words substituted, phrases rewritten/reworded, or sentences and paragraphs removed in their entirety. It’s not worse, it simply works differently for me.

SO, I take my computer out of my bag 💼, ready to work. The balcony is extremely hot 🥵, so I am forced to move the table into the shade.

I GO TO GET MY HARDCOPIES OF DAYS ONE to FIVE, only to discover that they are not there. OMG! I was horrified, as I had left them on my desk at home. I couldn’t believe it! I reframed my thoughts and reprogrammed my mind to think and work differently, which seems easier than it may appear for someone like me. I have an order in my head and usually have to stick to that order without deviation, repetition or hesitation. That is and was the plan.

That’s Life!

OBVIOUSLY, my beautiful idyllic surroundings 🏝️helped cushion the blow. But, it played on my mind for a while that this was not how it was supposed to be. Fortunately, however, that level of negatively failed to weigh the high level of positively of just keep writing. Each sentence written is a sentence closer towards completion!

SO, I ended up writing two pages (of approximately 15 A4 pages left to complete) whilst thinking about the content of the next two or more pages. That’s at least two more positive steps forwards!

So, tomorrow I write more 📖 ✍🏾.

DAY ONE of a writer’s diary

DAY THREE of a writer’s diary

DAY ONE of a writer’s diary

by Ryan Clement

IT’S LATE and I have a 6.45am flight ✈️ tomorrow morning from Gatwick South. Although I don’t live too far from the airport, time-wise. I can drive there in 45 minutes. But I wasn’t going to do that drive to get there for 5am, which means leaving home no later than 4.15am, which means waking up at 3.30am and which means just to get a miserly 6 hours sleep, going to bed at 9.30pm the night before 🛌. That wasn’t going to happen, especially as Caz and I were on the phone, bouncing off some good ideas for our next training sessions that left my brain over-hyper-active and unable to switch the Gatwick hotel light off until around 1.40am, leaving me with just 2 hours and 20 minutes before the first of my three alarms went off 🥱. Surprisingly and unusually, I woke up on the first ⏰ Why go to bed so late? After all, I was staying at a hotel in Gatwick and the shuttle bus runs every 20 minutes or so. Well, following on from my chat with Caz, I was buzzing and ‘in the zone,’ which meant I had to capture the moment whilst it was still fresh and raw in my mind, and whilst I was in my ultra creative mood. It sounds like it all went smoothly. It didn’t. The writing did, but my plan did not quite work out. 😩

I AM WRITING the finishing touches to my latest book 📚 called, ‘Discrimination in Employment in 7 Days‘ Another one of my ambitious but achievable projects after writing, ‘Race Relations in Employment Law – Put Simply in Black & White!‘

This book provides a detailed overview of UK employment discrimination law, focusing on the Equality Act 2010. It covers the legislative process, protected characteristics (such as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation), and prohibited conduct (including direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimisation). The book also delves into disability-specific protections, such as reasonable adjustments and discrimination arising from disability, and outlines the rights and obligations of employers and employees. It emphasises the importance of contracts of employment, both express and implied terms, and the role of employment tribunals in determining disability status and addressing grievances. The book is structured over seven days, providing a comprehensive understanding of the law’s provisions, definitions, and practical implications.

INITIALLY, being around 4 weeks ago, I had planned to finish and edit it whilst on holiday. Holiday was my motive to finish a project I had thought about many years ago. I wrote Day One in early 2024 after court in Leeds and between writing my Closing Submissions. I wrote Days Two and Three early in 2025 in Surrey. I wrote Days Four and Five on weekends in June 2025 in Gloucestershire between kayaking 🛶 in the Cotswold. The plan had been to finish the first draft in early July 2025 before I boarded the plane for the beautiful Greek island of Kos, leaving me one week to edit it in the sunshine. Ample time!🏝️Idyllic⛱️. Unfortunately, I was two days short of completing the week. So, I had to rethink and replan.

I ARRIVED AT MY HOTEL in Kos at around 1.30pm, Greek time, had lunch and then taken to my room. Virginia Woolf spoke of a Room of One’s Own. I immediately fell in love with mine. “I could write, here,” I thought. I have a balcony with the most amazing view(s). Perfect for inspiration, motivation and ideas.

So, tomorrow, I write ✍🏾.

DAY TWO of a writer’s diary

DAY THREE of a writer’s diary

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Ryan Clement, barrister

RACE RELATIONS law in the United Kingdom. After many years of practising as an employment law barrister, I have sought to encapsulate some of that experience in print, simply put in black and white, that I hope will be of assistance to many, be it an employee – current and former, employer, worker, claimant, respondent, HR, student and, of course, the intrigued. This book introduces the race relations laws in Britain as pertaining to employment. It does not seek to cover every minutiae of this fascinating and intriguing subject; it would take a much larger book to achieve that aim successfully.

I HAVE BOLDLY attempted to state where I believe it all began. I accept that some, if not many, would disagree with my starting position. But after spending many weeks researching and reading Hansard at my Inns of Court library (the old-fashioned way i.e. without the benefit of an Internet search engine), I reached the conclusion that 12 June 1956 was as good a starting point as any, which I detail in Chapter One (How It All Began). It saddens me somewhat to see that much of what was discussed over 60 years ago with regards to race relations would not look entirely out of place in some discussions taking place today.

THERE IS NO CONSENSUS as to the “correct” place to start when considering the birth of race relations in Britain. Each writer would have their preferable place at which to begin. I have chosen the date and place as 12 June 1956 at the House of Commons when the then Labour Member of Parliament for Eton and Slough, Mr Archibold Fenner Brockway, the son of a Christian missionary, sought leave of the House to introduce his Private Member’s Bill, supported by just eleven other named MPs, among them Mrs Castle and Mr Benn, “to make illegal discrimination to the detriment of any person on the grounds of colour, race and religion in the United Kingdom.”

HOUSE OF COMMONS, First Reading on 12 June 1956, Mr Brockway said:

It is very difficult to estimate opinion on this matter. There are under-currents of feeling, it may even be in the subconscious, which will respond under favourable conditions towards, or retreat under unfavourable conditions from, racial equality. But, Sir, I would say that broadly speaking the British people recognise that identity as human beings is greater than differences of race, colour or religion…I recognise that there must be a limitation of the powers of legislation. Often acts of discrimination are due to prejudice, to ignorance or to irrational repulsion, and those can be removed only by education or experience.

IN TOTAL, Mr Brockway made some 9 attempts to make various forms of race discrimination unlawful; each failing to make its way onto the statute books. However, on 8 November 1965, as predicted by Mr Brockway – albeit not his Bill – on 14 January 1964, the Bill described by Sir Dingle Foot as “a landmark in our legislation” received its Royal Assent and thus became the first race relations legislation in Britain; the Race Relations Act 1965.

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Brown v Board of Education 2

Ryan Clement

ON 17 May 2024, I wrote a blog about Brown v Board of Education, which I had first come across when I read for my Master of Laws (LL.M.) many moons ago.

Brown v. Board of Education

ONE OF THE PLEASURES OF WRITING is when someone says that they were introduced to a subject matter through what I had written. As is clear, amongst many other things, I often seek to simplify or summarise the law as much as is reducibly possible.

MY LL.M. was the last of my formal legal studies – my B.A. in English was my last of all. I often wondered what I would have become had it not been for, to cite Mr. Blair, “Education, Eduction, Education.” Obviously, I shall never know. But, what I do know is that I am grateful for the many educational opportunities that came my way that many of us take for granted, which are not universally accessible to all for various reasons. Ironically, I have been a trustee of a school for deaf children, a founding trustee of another for autistic children, been and am a governor of maintained and non-maintained schools. What goes around, comes around.

FOR MANY REASONS, the case of Brown v The Board of Education resonates with me. It was a bold move for the family/families to take, especially given the political climate and racial tensions in the U.S. at the material time. I remind you, the decision in Brown was made in 1954 before much of what we know famously about the civil rights movement. To put it in its historical context of what ensued: What happened to Emmett Till was in 1955. Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat on 1 December 1955 for a white person and was arrested, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, lasting in excess of a year. “I Have a Dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was on 28 August 1963. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law, which JFK had previously proposed. The Civil Rights Act 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, and national origin. These were undoubtedly tumultuous times across the Atlantic. However, they were times of struggle that led to the shaping of equality laws globally. 🌏🌍🌎 For example, in the U.K., the first major anti-discriminatory law was passed 1 year later, being the Race Relations Act 1965, which was expanded by the Race Relations Act 1968, followed by the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and back to an even more expanded Race Relations Act 1976, which remained in force until the current amalgamated Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October 2010. It is on the giant shoulders of those who fought for equality in the face of extreme adversity that many of us stand today.

BROWN v BOARD OF EDUCATION was the beginning of a movement and a major turning point in anti-discrimination practices and laws in and beyond the shores of Stateside itself!

WE REAP WHAT WE SOW 1

WE REAP WHAT WE SOW 2

WE REAP WHAT WE SOW 3

DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT and BULLYING in the WORKPLACE 😔

Ryan Clement

TO DISCRIMINATE DIRECTLY AGAINST A PERSON UNLAWFULLY is to treat that person less favourably than a comparator (actual or hypothetical) in stipulated situations because of a protected characteristic such as age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation.

HARASSMENT is as an unwanted conduct that relates to a relevant protected characteristic such as age; disability; gender reassignment; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation, which has the purpose or effect of violating the victim’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the victim.

A BULLY is, “a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable,” and the act of bullying is to, “habitually intimidate, abuse, harass or to coerce or compel,” by bullying. OED.

NOT UNNATURALLY, Bullying and Harassment would normally fall under the same chapter/heading in the Employee/Staff Handbook. Bullying is, effectively, the unwanted conduct of the acts of bullying by the target of such acts (the victim) by the person conducting or responsible for such unwanted acts (the bully).

OBVIOUSLY, acts of bullying can take innumerable forms. It can be from the most subtle to the most obvious of acts/conducts. What is certain, however, is what is an unwanted conduct for one person may not necessarily be so for another. Therefore, what amounts to bullying is subjective to a large extent, and that subjective decision is that of the Victim (their perception) not of the Bully. In other words, one hat of interaction does not fit all. Each colleague is different and unique, and is to be treated differently and uniquely.

WORKPLACE BULLYING is real and it’s exhausting. It is not just the whispers or the snide comments; it is the constant feeling of dread. We often think it is just part of the job, but it doesn’t have to be. We deserve respect, support, and a safe environment to thrive.

IF YOU FEEL you have been bullied or harassed you may raise a grievance on those grounds. Now, this is where the two run in parallel but only to a point. An employee can present a claim of harassment to the employment tribunal whilst still employed by their employer. However, as bullying is not a standalone claim, a bullied employee cannot do the same in respect of bullying alone. If an employee has been bullied they can resign and claim constructive wrongful dismissal. However, with exceptions, they can also only bring a claim for constructive unfair dismissal if they have worked continuously for their employer for a stipulated period, which is currently 2 years. It should be noted that an harassed employee can also resign because of their harassment and bring a claim in the employment tribunal.

GRIEVANCE and DISCIPLINARY

Ryan Clement

THE STANDARDS to be applied by an investigator when investigating a grievance or a disciplinary matter is the, ‘balance of probabilities.’ This test is not easy to apply. For example, when an investigator is face with two opposite accounts, which both appear to be plausible in the circumstances, they must still nevertheless decide. The balance of probabilities cannot end in the balance. ⚖️ It’s the investigator’s job to decide, with good reasons, why they accept one side as being more likely than the other, even if it results in a tight 51% versus 49%! 🤔 A decision must be made. It can be tough. 😩

FURTHERMORE, to add to the pressure, the investigator’s findings and, on occasion, recommended sanctions could be tested and scrutinised by the courts and employment tribunals on whether their findings were reasonable to make in the circumstances based on the evidence before them.

LAW IN SHORTS

CONTRACTS OF EMPLOYMENT

Ryan Clement, barrister

LIKE WITH MOST CONTRACTS, a contract of employment consists of three key components: offer, acceptance and consideration.

THE OFFER is made by the prospective employer, which is ACCEPTED by the prospective employee. CONSIDERATION would be, amongst other things, the employee agreeing to undertake the work that is stipulated in the contract and the employer agreeing to pay the employee for the work that the employee undertook.

A CONTRACT may be in writing ✍🏾 or made orally 🗣️. Ideally, of course, it should be made in writing, so as to avoid any confusion and any dispute over what the agreed terms were; all the parties would have to do is pick up a document 📃 and see what was agreed 🤝 at the material time.

NOT ALL TERMS OF A CONTRACT need to be expressed. Some terms could be implied, and they are implied by law – I shall deal with customs & practice, and the person on the Clapham Omnibus in another blog! For example, as a matter of law, you cannot pay below the national minimum or living wage. So when a party says, “I do not have a contract,” what they really mean is that they do not have a written contract of employment. 😳 Otherwise, why did they get out of bed and go to work Monday to Friday or Saturday and Sunday? And the flip side of that is, why did this organisation pay them money after they went to work on Monday to Friday or Saturday and Sunday? 🤔

THEREFORE, whether it’s oral or it’s written, it’s still a binding contract.

Law in Shorts 1

⚖️ ON BALANCE ⚖️

Ryan Clement, LL.M., barrister

STANDARDS OF PROOF are more prevalent in our daily lives than many of us might care to realise. It could be the difference between being found to have committed to a disciplinary offence at work or not; between succeeding at one’s grievance or not; being deemed to have been wrongfully dismissed or not; found to be in breach of the company’s code of practice or not; or, for example, having been found to be in breach of contract or not, to name just a few.

THE STANDARDS above refer to what we term, ‘balance of probabilities.’ I deliver training sessions on this standard and, trust me, it is not easy to apply this test when, for example, an investigator is face with two diametrically different accounts; especially when both appear to be highly plausible in the circumstances.🤔 The balance of probabilities cannot end in the balance i.e. 50-50. It’s the investigator’s job to decide, with good reasons, why they accept one side as being more likely than the other, even if it results in a tight 51% versus 49%! A decision must be made. It can be an unenviable task.

FURTHERMORE, the investigator’s findings and, on occasion, recommended sanctions could be tested by the courts on whether their findings were right on the balance of probabilities or, to complicate matters even more, it was reasonable to make such a finding based on the evidence, which they arrived at, you guessed, on the balance of probabilities. No wonder our training sessions are no less than half a day and more like a full day on how to handle disciplinary and grievance complaints.

AS WELL AS BEING an employment law specialist, as a former trustee of schools and past and present governor of many schools, I have been called upon to Chair complaints of all kinds in which I am to apply the civil standard of proof – balance of probabilities. In fact, regarding suspensions and permanent exclusions from maintained schools and academies, the Department of Education refers to this standard throughout its Guidance (August 2024). For example, ‘When establishing the facts in relation to a suspension or permanent exclusion decision the headteacher must apply the civil standard of proof, i.e. ‘on the balance of probabilities’ it is more likely than not that a fact is true, rather than the criminal standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’ This means that the headteacher should accept that something happened if it is more likely that it happened than that it did not happen. The headteacher must take account of their legal duty of care when sending a pupil home following an exclusion.’ [para. 3].

THE BALANCE OF PROBABILITIES allows for a more pragmatic approach to justice, recognising that absolute certainty is often unattainable. It empowers one to make decisions based on the preponderance of evidence, ensuring that individuals can seek redress and resolution in civil disputes. Ultimately, it embodies a fundamental principle of fairness in a system, prioritising reasoned judgment over infallible certainty.

If your organisation requires such training and I can assist, you can email me HERE for enquiries.

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LAW IN SHORTS