Employment tribunal cases in the news – 19.05.2014 to 25.05.2014

MoJIn the latest of our series of posts on employment tribunal cases in the news this week, we examine ten employment tribunal cases that have made headlines between 19 May and 25 May 2014

  1. BBC lawyer: Caroline Thomson would ‘give game away’ in Linwood hearing – Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s former chief operating officer, will not be called as a witness in John Linwood’s unfair dismissal claim over the Digital Media Initiative technology fiasco because she would “give the game away”, the BBC’s lawyer claimed on Tuesday (The Guardian)
  2. Worker sacked for e-mails over ‘sensitive’ data – Iona Hyde told an employment tribunal she had been “vilified” by Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority for breaching procedures that do not even exist. The former Trees and Woodland Officer sent her husband – a private planning consultant – a copy of recommendations she had made in a planning application involving his client, who was objecting to the case (Herald Scotland)
  3. Accrington Globe Centre staff win tribunal pay-out – An outsourcing giant which told East Lancashire call centre staff they could move to India to keep their jobs is facing a payout of at least £300,000 after a tribunal ruled they were unfairly dismissed. Around 250 workers based at the Globe Centre in Accrington were sacked by Sitel after the company lost a major contract with holiday website Expedia, which exported the work to another operation in Bangalore (The Lancashire Telegraph)
  4. Sacked Google worker awarded €110,000 for unfair dismissal – A sacked Google worker who claimed the company’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt personally interfered with staff rankings has been awarded €110,000 by the Employment Appeals Tribunal. Rachel Berthold, a former senior manager at Google in Dublin, was awarded the compensation after the tribunal rejected Google’s defence that it had dismissed her on competency grounds (The Irish Times)
  5. Sun photographer sues Murdoch for £500,000 over ‘ageism’ – Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper publishing stable, News UK, is being sued for more than £500,000 for alleged age discrimination by one of The Sun newspaper’s biggest showbiz names (The Independent)
  6. Assistant with HIV victimised by M&S – Marks & Spencer harassed and victimised a female employee who became HIV positive after being allegedly raped by a colleague, an employment tribunal panel has ruled. Charmaine Wakelin, 42, was working as a personal assistant in the retailer’s head office in northwest London when she alleges that she was raped after a work party in July 2008 (The Times)
  7. Belief in public service protected by Equality Act – In the case Anderson v Chesterfield High School, an employment tribunal had to decide whether a commitment to public service was a protected belief and whether it played a part in an employee’s dismissal (CIPD)
  8. Stafford man sacked from charity near Stone after ‘clipping’ broom attacker – A Stafford man who worked with people with learning difficulties was dismissed after “clipping” a male client who had twice struck him with a broom. John Wainwright, of Kingsley Close, told Birmingham Employment Tribunal he had responded in self defence and had told him not to hit him again (The Staffordshire Newsletter)
  9. NHS whistleblower takes Croydon University Hospital to tribunal – A doctor who blew the whistle on problems at Croydon University Hospital at an inquest last year has taken the NHS to an employment tribunal. Dr Kevin Beatt, a cardiologist consultant at the hospital until he was fired, gave evidence at the inquest into the death of 63-year-old Gerald Storey in July last year (The Croydon Advertiser)
  10. Former BA pilot loses £110,000 unfair dismissal claim after blowing whistle on colleague who he claimed risked ‘committing a criminal offence’ by flying damaged aeroplane – A former British Airways captain who blew the whistle on a pilot who took off despite having a collision on a runway, has lost his £110,000 claim that he was unfairly forced out by his new employer. Whistle-blower Captain Graham Howard said he was sacked for bringing an ‘unwelcome focus’ on Blink Ltd after taking his worries to the Civil Aviation Authority (The Daily Mail)