Employment Tribunal cases in the news last week – 12.08.2013 to 18.08.2013

A round-up of links to stories about employment tribunal rulings reported in the week beginning 12 August 2013, including a worker who has made a claim to the Employment Tribunal after he contends that he was dismissed for what he believes were protected disclosures at work

  1. Worker makes Employment Tribunal claim after contending that he was sacked for whistleblowing – A worker at a Swindon homeless charity spoke out after learning of a proposal by the chief executive to lease out a house she owned to the organisation. Mr Niester and co-worker James Derieg were sacked after they aired concerns over governance, financial arrangements and conflicts of interest in the Adver (Swindon Advertiser)
  2. Pawnbrokers successfully defend Employment Tribunal claim for unfair dismissal – Cash Converters, which is based in Preston Brook, was told it had no case to answer against Craig Tansley, during a preliminary hearing in Birmingham. Mr Tansley had been employed as general assistant at the firm’s branch in Stoke-on-Trent but was dismissed over a ‘cash handling breach of procedure’ (Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News)
  3. Headteacher succeeds in appeal to Court of Appeal over her sacking in 2010 – The Court of Appeal has upheld the appeal of the former headteacher of a Reading school after it held that an Employment Tribunal had made an incorrect finding in the original hearing (GetReading)
  4. Standard newspaper owners must pay former employee more than £22,000 after success in Employment Tribunal claim – The Bullivant newspaper business, which produces the Redditch, Bromsgrove and Droitwich Standards, has been ordered to pay a former sales director more than £22,000 after she was unfairly dismissed. Lesley McWhirter of Jourdain Park, Warwick, aged 52, who served the Bullivant family for 24 years, also successfully defended a counter claim against her (Redditch & Alcester Advertiser)
  5. Sacked engineer fails with Employment Tribunal claim for unfair dismissal after leaving hole in Dundee street – A service engineer sacked in 2012 for leaving a gaping hole in a Dundee street was fairly dismissed, an Employment Tribunal has ruled. The engineer had previously contended that his dismissal for gross misconduct was overly harsh (The Courier)
  6. Charity faces bailiffs after it fails to pay £9,000 compensation awarded by the Employment Tribunal – Lynda Gooding has now had to pay £100 out of her own pocket to take the case to county court, but has still yet to receive a penny of the money she is owed from Manor Residents’ Association. The disgraced charity now faces having its assets repossessed by bailiffs in the coming days unless £8,856 is paid to former cleaner Mrs Gooding, who won her employment tribunal case in early April (The Hartlepool Mail)
  7. Former employee alleges at the Employment Tribunal that he had an airgun pointed at his head at work – A former employee of the Penarth Leisure Centre has taken his case to the Employment Tribunal after he alleged that he was threatened with an airgun and harassed and discriminated against (The Penarth Times)
  8. Ex-Kidderminster firm’s workers seek £400k in compensation after administration – Enpure Ltd, which moved from Kidderminster to Woodgate Valley Business Park, near Quinton, had an annual turnover of £65 million at its peak but it faced “a challenging period in trading” last year and went into administration. More than 30 of the former employees who lost their jobs complained at Birmingham Employment Tribunal about a lack of adequate consultation about their impending job losses and sought protective awards (The Stourbridge News)
  9. Former Saints boss must wait for employment tribunal on sacking – Former Saints manager Nigel Adkins will have to wait for his chance to face the club at an employment tribunal. Adkins is claiming unfair dismissal following the decision to sack him from his post at St Mary’s last January (The Southern Daily Echo)
  10. Patricia McBride not entitled to redundancy payment – An employment tribunal has ruled that the former victims’ commissioner Patricia MacBride is not entitled to a redundancy payment. She was one of four commissioners appointed in 2008. As the appointment was a public one, she was not entitled to a payment. She challenged that decision at the tribunal claiming that she was both an office-holder and an employee (BBC)