Employment law cases in the news – 27.07.2015 to 02.08.2015
In the latest of our series of posts on employment law cases in the news, we take a look at ten employment law cases that have made the news between 27 July and 2 August 2015
- Derbyshire NHS chief branded female colleague a ‘whore’ after she snubbed his sexual advances – A health watchdog is investigating an NHS trust after a sexual harassment employment tribunal identified “significant issues”. Government regulator Monitor is probing Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to see if there are other problems with the way the organisation is run (The Derbyshire Times)
- Global Energy Firm fined £1.4m after worker killed in refinery fire – Total UK Limited have been fined £1.4 million after a major fire led to the death of a worker at an oil refinery in North Lincolnshire. Twenty-four year old Robert Greenacre from Grimsby was working near a crude oil distillation unit just before the fire broke out at the Lindsey Oil Refinery (TLOR) in Immingham on 29th June 2010 (HSE)
- EU Kosovo mission accused of trying to silence whistleblower – The European Union’s biggest foreign mission has been accused of using its powers to try to silence a whistleblower who claims to have uncovered evidence of possible corruption. Eulex, the foreign mission in Kosovo, is being taken to an employment tribunal by the London-based lawyer Maria Bamieh. She claims she was forced from her job as a prosecutor after exposing evidence of bribery among senior staff (The Guardian)
- Police firearms officer sues Scotland Yard for sexual discrimination after his request for a five-year career break was refused while his wife’s was granted – A police firearms officer is suing for sex discrimination after he was refused a five-year career break which was granted to his wife. Neil Annals worked for the Met’s Diplomatic Protection Group and wanted leave so he and his wife, PC Grainne O’Reilly, could temporarily relocate to New Zealand with their son, now aged four (The Mail Online)
- New twist in row over ‘forced’ retirement of hundreds of West Midlands Police officers – The saga involving the enforced retirement of the region’s most experienced police officers has taken another twist after former officers lodged a further legal challenge against West Midlands Police. Appeal court judges backed the force earlier this month by overturning an earlier ruling which said they had acted unlawfully by forcing 600 of its most experienced officers into early retirement (The Birmingham Mail)
- UK border official denied right to know why he was fired on national security grounds – A former UK border official has lost his seven-year fight to find out why he was sacked by the Home Office on national security grounds. In a Kafkaesque case the 54-year-old has never been able to discover why he was removed from his job just days after returning from a holiday to see his relatives in Pakistan seven years ago (The Independent)
- Charity manager wins unfair dismissal tribunal despite ‘gross misconduct’ over £1.6k funds – Charity manager Alison Magill, who took £1,600 of funds without permission, has won a tribunal case for unfair dismissal but will not receive compensation. Ms Magill, of Herd Street, Marlborough, was told she had won on a legality but was ‘misguided’ to think she had not done anything wrong when she took the money from the New Road Centre in Marlborough, which cares for people with disabilities (The Swindon Advertiser)
- Uber facing legal action in UK over its workers’ rights – Uber is facing legal action in the UK from British drivers who claim the taxi-booking firm does not provide them with basic workers’ rights (BBC)
- Solihull dad accused of bid to use leaked data to blackmail Tata firm – A former restaurant owner faces losing £300,000 after being accused of attempting to use sensitive data to blackmail one of the world’s biggest companies. Tata Consultancy Services, part of the mighty, India-based Tata Motors Group which took over Jaguar and Land Rover, has gained a temporary injunction against Prashant Sengar of Solihull (The Birmingham Mail)
- Workers who fail to declare tips lose out on basic employment rights – Workers who receive regular tips but do not officially declare them are being warned that they risk losing out on basic employment rights. It follows the case of a former manager at Coia’s cafe in Glasgow whose unfair dismissal claim was thrown out because he and his bosses had an agreement where he did not declare all of his tips to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Herald Scotland)