Employment law stories in the news – 11.04.2022 to 17.04.2022

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news we take a look at ten employment law stories that made headlines between 11 April 2022 and 17 April 2022

  1. Ocado ‘forced out worker who raised fire safety issues’ – Ocado has been ordered to pay a former employee £20,000 in damages after he raised concerns about fire safety in one of its warehouses (Telegraph)
  2. Accounts executive wins sex harassment claim after she was called ‘good girl’ and ‘fat’ by condescending boss at ‘toxic’ male-dominated consultancy firm Gartner – Calling a middle-aged woman ‘good girl’ in the office is sexual harassment, a tribunal has ruled (DailyMail)
  3. ‘Vindictive’ headteacher wanted to sack colleague suffering from brain tumour – A teacher with a terminal brain tumour has won a disability discrimination case after her boss launched a ‘vindictive’ campaign to get rid of her (WalesOnline)
  4. Teacher forced to express breast milk in school toilet wins sexual harassment case – Tara Mellor asked bosses for a room in which she could express milk to give her daughter, but she was ‘forced’ to do it either in the car park or the toilets during her lunch break, a tribunal heard (Mirror)
  5. Senior Bank of Scotland boss who was sacked over ‘thick black Africans’ jibe loses unfair dismissal case – The experienced Bank of Scotland (HBOS) project manager was accused of having a policy of ‘No Muslims and no Black Africans’ when assessing potential candidates (The Scottish Sun)
  6. Essex hospital worker left ’embarrassed and intimidated’ after being shouted at by off-duty midwife, tribunal hears – Sonographer Mrs Sawyers won an age harassment employment tribunal over a claim her grievance was managed poorly (EssexLive)
  7. Primark accused of ‘sexism’ by mum asked to do Thursday late shift – The woman, who worked as a department manager at a store in Bury, took her case to an employment tribunal, citing indirect sex discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal but was unsuccessful (Manchester Evening News)
  8. Pregnant Nottingham carer wins £25,000 in discrimination claim after being branded ‘useless’ by patient ‘too heavy’ to lift – Sandy Croly, 31, from Nottingham, refused to pick up Kelly Ann Smith, who she said was ‘too heavy’, as she was worried about her unborn baby (NottinghamshireLive)
  9. Butcher sacked for being too old wins £120,000 in age discrimination case -A loyal butcher with more than 50 years experience who was replaced by a younger man after he became ill has won more than £120,000 in an age discrimination case (Express)
  10. Tribunal rules in favour of former TM Lewin staff – The 101 former staff members will now receive up to £4,352 – a total combined payout of £439,000 – via the government’s Insolvency Service (Drapers)