Employment law cases in the news – 04.07.2016 to 10.07.2016

redmans-blog-newsIn 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 headlines between 4 July and 10 July 2016

  1. Illegal working civil penalties: Home Office targets larger firms – In the second half of 2015 alone, the Home Office issued 1,217 illegal working civil penalties to businesses, equating to £21.6 million in fines. Civil penalties have now become a prized revenue stream for the Home Office (Personnel Today)
  2. Construction worker crushed by excavator on school demolition site – A construction company was sentenced today after a worker suffered crush injuries when he was hit and then run over by an excavator. Complete Demolition Ltd had been contracted to demolish a school on the site at Stanney Lane, Ellesmere Port to make way for a new leisure centre when the incident occurred (HSE)
  3. Feud between billionaire founder of Phones 4u and his glamorous protege reaches High Court after she is accused of faking £33,000 expenses claim – Jon Caudwell, the former of Phones 4u, is engaged in a legal fight with a partner at the wealth management fund that he co-founded (The Daily Mail)
  4. Smoking breaks part of reason Bridgnorth mechanic lost his job, tribunal told – Unauthorised smoking breaks contributed to a mechanic losing his job with a Bridgnorth firm specialising in classic cars, a tribunal has heard. Anthony Hunt told a during an employment tribunal in Birmingham he felt “bullied” after being dismissed from Classic Motor Cars Ltd on the Stanmore Industrial Estate (The Shropshire Star)
  5. Worker dies at Portsmouth ship scrapping yard – A ship building and repair company, Diverse Ventures,has been fined following the death of a worker who was hit by a mooring rope. Hove Crown Court heard that 50-year-old Paul Hudghton died after being hit by a rope being used to pull the jib of a small Tori crane back into position at Tipner Wharf, Portsmouth (HSE)
  6. Third Ex-Citigroup Trader Wins Unfair Dismissal Lawsuit – A fired Citigroup Inc. currency trader, who claimed his bosses made him a scapegoat for the foreign exchange market-manipulation scandal, said he won a ruling that he was unfairly dismissed (Bloomberg)
  7. Glasgow Life slated over the sacking of five managers amid allegations of a Commonwealth Games overtime scam – Scotland’s largest arts and leisure spin-off has been damned over its wrongful sacking of five managers amid allegations of a Commonwealth Games overtime scam (The Herald Scotland)
  8. Co-op employee who lost job when Coventry store shut loses unfair dismissal claim – A warehouse worker who lost his job with dozens of others after Coventry’s Co-op store shut up shop last year has lost a legal claim for unfair dismissal. The test case at Birmingham Employment Tribunal was brought by Ashwin Rathod, of Radford, and its failure will come as a blow to other former Co-op employees who are understood to have similar claims in the pipeline (The Coventry Telegraph)
  9. Ex-Leeds United welfare officer Lucy Ward wins £132,000 payout – Leeds United’s former welfare officer has been awarded more than £132,000 in an unfair dismissal and sex discrimination case. Lucy Ward will get £127,229 for sex discrimination and a further £5,525 in respect of unfair dismissal, after leaving Elland Road in July 2015 (BBC)