Iris Ferber

Iris conducts the full range of Employment Tribunal and appellate work, acting regularly for both employees and employers.

She works with a wide range of employers, from public sector employers and national companies with thousands of employees, to small businesses and individuals.

She has also represented claimants in many different types of case, from simple unfair dismissal claims, to complex, multi-day trials involving a variety of different legal claims.

As a barrister who spends much of her working time in the Employment Tribunal, Iris is familiar with the way the system works, and can advise clients not only on the legal issues in their dispute, but also on practicalities, and litigation and appeal tactics. She undertakes drafting and advisory work in all aspects of Employment Law.

Iris provides regular training to solicitors and companies: both seminars on current legal issues, and practical workshops on employee management and litigation.

Recent Work

Iris is currently dealing with a large number of disability discrimination claims, many of them involving the full range of employment claims available under the Equality Act.  She recently succeeded on behalf of a respondent in arguing that an employee with bouts of back pain was not disabled, thereby bringing his claim to an end.

Selected Employment Cases

• Keeping Kids Company (in compulsory liquidation) v Smith [2018] IRLR 484: The EAT upheld the ET’s majority decision that the former employees of Kids Company were entitled to protective awards due to the charity’s failure to consult prior to redundancy; there were no special circumstances justifying the lack of consultation
• Watkins v HSBC Bank plc [2018] IRLR 1015: The EAT overturned the ET’s decision striking out a disability discrimination claim as being out of time; although the allegations ranged back to the time of coming into force of the Disability Discrimination At 1995, the Claimant alleged that they constituted a continuing course of conduct, and the ET was wrong to reject that argument at a preliminary hearing
• Hartley v Foreign and Commonwealth Office Services [2016] ICR D17: Successful EAT appeal in harassment claim; the ET had fallen into error by mistakenly focusing on the perception of those making the harassing remarks, rather than on the correct legal test of harassment

Professional memberships

• Discrimination Law Association
• Employment Lawyers Association
• Employment Law Bar Association

News & events