Members of Chambers - Harjit Grewal

Call 1980

Qualifications: BA (Hons) (Cantab)

Practice Areas: Employment, Discrimination and Immigration.

Harjit specialises in employment law and her practice encompasses all areas of employment law. Over the years she has been instructed by a wide range of clients  employers in the public and private sector, privately paying employees and those assisted by trade unions and statutory bodies, such as the Commission for Racial Equality. Her cases have involved a wide spectrum of employment institutions. In the public sector these have included local authorities, the NHS, the prison service and the police, and in the private sector financial institutions, insurance companies and varying commercial concerns.

In addition to advisory work and drafting contracts, policies, handbooks, etc., she represents both employers and employees in employment tribunals, the EAT, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. She has succeeded in securing substantial awards for employees in the tribunals. Some examples of these are Wakeman & others v Quick Corporation (3 British executives awarded a total of £626,756 for race discrimination by a Japanese company), Hillingdon Hospital strikers v Pall Mall (50 employees, supported by UNISON, order for re-engagement on old terms and conditions 3 years after TUPE related dismissal, and £400,000 compensation after failure to re-engage), Thamboo-Fell v Tower Hamlets NHS Trust (re-instatement and £65,000 compensation for race discrimination), Stewart and Hawkins v Prison Service (£75,000 for race discrimination), Firdous v Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust (50,000 for race discrimination), Jiminez v London Borough of Southwark (about £60,000 for disability discrimination).

Harjit's reported cases in employment include the following  Tottenham Green Under Fives v Marshall [1991] ICR 320,

Chan v Hackney LBC [1997] ICR 1014,

C J O'Shea Construction Ltd. v Bassi [1998] ICR 1130,

Wakeman and others v Quick Corporation [1999] IRLR 424, CA,

Jiminez v LB of Southwark [2003] IRLR 477, CA,

Rihal v LB of Ealing [2004] IRLR 642, CA.

In 2003 Harjit was appointed to sit as a part-time Chairman of Employment Tribunals, and she currently sits in the London Central tribunal. Harjit is on the Advisory Board for "Discrimination in Employment" by Tucker and George, published by Sweet & Maxwell