Employment law cases in the news – 26.10.2015 to 01.11.2015
In the latest of our series of posts on employment law cases in the news, we look at ten cases that have made the news between 26 October 2015 and 1 November 2015
- Christian prison worker ‘forced to quit’ for sharing Bible – A Christian prison worker who claims he was forced to resign after being harassed for sharing the Bible at work is taking his case to an employment tribunal. Ordained Pentecostal minister Revd Barry Trayhorn alleges he suffered an “unfair and aggressive disciplinary process” for talking about the Bible’s teaching on sexual behaviour and homosexuality during a service at HMP Littlehey, a prison for sex offenders (Premier)
- UNISON secures multi-million pound compensation deal with Fife Council – Fife Council will pay out millions of pounds to 1400 low-paid workers under an agreement reached with public sector union UNISON. The settlement relates to the equal pay claims of UNISON members – mainly low-paid women working in roles such as carers, cleaners and cooks – who will now be recompensed for historic discriminatory pay practices within the council (Fife Today)
- Hotel Chocolat in court after worker’s hand dragged into machine – Chocolate manufacturer Hotel Chocolat has been prosecuted after a worker suffered serious hand and arm injuries whilst cleaning a machine tank. Piotr Podgorski, 35, from Bretton, in Peterborough, was working as a cell supervisor for the company on 16 August 2014 when he was asked to clean the tank of a chocolate enrobing machine so it could be reassembled for production (HSE)
- Discrimination arising from disability: withdrawal of job offer because of epilepsy not discriminatory – An employment tribunal has found that an employer did not commit discrimination arising from disability and met its duty to make reasonable adjustments when it withdrew a conditional job offer after health and safety concerns over a job applicant’s epilepsy (Xpert HR)
- Inquiry into how £60k bullying claim led to £1.5m damages award – An investigation has been launched into how a council let a £60,000 compensation case escalate into a damages award of £1.5m. Karen Hall claimed she was bullied while working at West Cornforth Primary School, County Durham – suffering headteacher Janet Sarsfield twisting her arm and having had a ball thrown at her in front of her class in 2004 (The Northern Echo)
- GCHQ rejected me over my loyalty to God, says chess star: Chess Master loses employment tribunal appeal over claim he was refused job because of his admission – A Chess master claims he was turned down for a job at the top secret GCHQ intelligence base because of his ‘devout’ Christianity and ‘loyalty to God over his country’. Charlie Storey insisted his admissions – which also included drug-taking as a young man – were behind his rejection for a highly prized job after he went through a gruelling selection process at the listening station in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (The Daily Mail)
- Morrisons to be sued by 2,000 staff – More than 2,000 staff at Morrisons are to sue the supermarket chain after some of their personal and financial details were posted online. The leak happened when a company auditor uploaded details of almost 100,000 staff to various file-sharing websites in 2013 (BBC)
- Eva Carneiro to claim for constructive dismissal against Chelsea – Lawyers acting for the former Chelsea team doctor Eva Carneiro have served notice on the club that she intends to bring a claim for constructive dismissal, having failed as yet to agree a severance package following her departure last month (The Guardian)
- Competitive redeployment exercise: NHS trust should have used alternative assessment method for employee with cancer – An employment tribunal has held that an NHS trust committed discrimination arising from disability and failed to make reasonable adjustments for an employee having cancer treatment who was required to undergo a competitive interview process during a redeployment exercise. The employee was awarded £115,000 (Xpert HR)
- UNISON secures employment tribunal win for careers advisers – UNISON has won a hard fought victory for workers in the careers service against Prospects Limited. Prospects Limited took over the delivery of the National Careers Services contract in the West of England from Careers South West. But, the company refused to accept that careers advisers working for Careers South West should transfer to them, arguing that their service was a digital service and so the jobs weren’t the same (UNISON)