Employment law cases in the news – 08.12.2014 to 14.12.2014

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 8 December and 14 December 2014.

  1. Gay officer sues Met over ‘Barrymore sex taunts’: PC claims he was teased over friendship with shamed star – A Gay policeman is suing Scotland Yard claiming he was taunted for ‘having sex with Michael Barrymore’. PC Dan Lichters said he was embarrassed when fellow officers asked if he had relationships with ‘any other celebrities’ (The Mail Online)
  2. Polish produce packer loses race discrimination and harassment claim – A Polish produce packer who lived in Redditch, and who alleged she and her national colleagues were treated less favourably than Lithuanian workers at a Warwickshire farm, has lost legal claims for race discrimination and harassment (The Redditch Advertiser)
  3. Dundee FC secretary drops employment tribunal against club – A former secretary of Dundee Football Club has withdrawn her unfair dismissal claim against the club. Laura Hayes raised an employment tribunal against the Dens Park side at the end of last year following her exit from the club in September 2013 (The Herald Scotland)
  4. Croydon NHS Trust lodges appeal against ruling it sacked cardiologist for whistleblowing on patient safety – Croydon’s NHS trust has appealed against a tribunal ruling that it fired a senior doctor for whistleblowing on patient safety. Dr Kevin Beatt, a leading cardiologist, was sacked two years ago in a calculated attempt to ruin his reputation after he raised serious concerns about nursing standards, staff bullying and ageing machinery at Croydon University Hospital (The Croydon Guardian)
  5. £18k for bakery girl sacked when she got pregnant and boss told her she could no longer drive a van – A young mother has been awarded more than £18,000 after she was sacked by a bakery when she became pregnant. Hannah Whiteman said her boss told her: ‘This is not the type of job you are able to do while pregnant.’ (The Mail Online)
  6. Transsexual took Norfolk cleaning firm to tribunal over discrimination claim, court told – Poppy Rose, who started to undergo gender reassignment four years ago, had hoped to become a domestic cleaner with Poringland-registered franchise Time For You (Norfolk & Suffolk) Ltd. She said she was “disappointed” that her legal case was struck out at a Norwich employment tribunal yesterday, but hoped she had helped raise awareness of equal rights issues (EDP24)
  7. Utility company sentenced for worker death – Thames Water has been ordered to pay more than £361,000 in fines and costs after a worker was killed by a reversing excavator at a treatment works in Walthamstow. Raymond Holmes, 59, of Rayleigh, sustained multiple crush injuries in the fatal incident at the utility company’s Coppermill Lane site on 30 April 2010, and died at the scene (HSE)
  8. Aircraft firm gets it wrong with work at height – A Hampshire-based aircraft maintenance company has been sentenced for safety failures after three workers were injured in separate falls at its airfield in Lasham – two in the same month. The first incident at ATC (Lasham) Ltd, which has an international client base, saw an employee fall five metres from an aircraft door to the runway tarmac while repairing a faulty door. His injuries were at first thought to be life-threatening (HSE)
  9. Falkirk Council workers still waiting for equal pay – Hundreds of council workers will reach an unwanted milestone next month – 10 years fighting for equal pay. Unions and lawyers have now been campaigning for nearly a decade to win a better wage deal for low paid employees of Falkirk Council (The Falkirk Herald)
  10. Saatchi & Saatchi reimburses cleaners missing wages – Advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi has found itself weathering some bad PR after 35 unpaid cleaning staff go to court in an effort to claw back £40,000 in unpaid wages, forcing the media firm to act. A mystery donor stepped forward to finance employment tribunal proceedings against the advertising firm which stood accused of abandoning its contract workers (The Drum)