Employment law cases in the news – 11.09.2017 to 17.09.2017

In 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 11 September and 17 September 2017

  1. Company fined after worker fatally crushed by fork lift truck – Lincolnshire based firm Vacu-Lug Traction Tyres Limited has been fined after a worker died when the fork lift truck he was driving overturned at the company base in Grantham (HSE)
  2. Barclays whistleblowing chief to quit after agreeing to settlement – Barclays’ head of whistleblowing plans to leave the bank, having agreed to a settlement and withdrawn an employment tribunal case only months after regulators launched an investigation into his chief executive’s handling of a whistleblowing matter (The Financial Times)
  3. HMRC wins national minimum wage penalty cap case – An employment tribunal has found that HMRC was entitled to issue multiple penalty notices – and therefore multiple penalty fines – in the case of underpayments to 2,000 workers supplied by recruitment firm Best Connection Group (BCG) to Sports Direct (CIPD)
  4. Almost 50 equal pay claims still to be settled by SBC – Scottish Borders Council has still to settle 46 outstanding claims over equal pay – almost a decade after the Single Status Agreement was implemented in the region (Peeblesshire News)
  5. Bradford College criticised for treatment of black teacher at pupil referral unit who complained of racial abuse from pupils – A judge has criticised Bradford College over the alleged way it treated a black teacher after he complained of being racially abused by pupils (The Telegraph and Argus)
  6. Disabled oil worker fired ‘after decade of bullying’ – The chief executive of a Kuwaiti oil company ordered the sacking of a disabled employee in a wheelchair because he did not fit the right image for the firm, a tribunal has heard (The Metro)
  7. Libor rates ‘still open to rigging’ claims whistleblower – Libor is “more open to manipulation” than ever before despite wholesale reform of how the benchmark rate is calculated, a whistleblower claims (The Times)
  8. Music teacher loses unfair dismissal case against Wyke College – A former director of music at Hull’s Wyke College who suffered from depression has lost a legal case after complaining her ex-bosses did not do enough to help her cope (The Hull Daily Mail)
  9. Paramedic sacked over inappropriate relationship with vulnerable patient who had suicidal thoughts – A paramedic was sacked over an inappropriate relationship with a vulnerable patient with had suicidal thoughts who he had “pressurised and attempted to manipulate” (Cornwall Live)
  10. Winkworth employee wins employment tribunal on age discrimination grounds – A woman who was told she might be “better suited to a traditional estate agency” was discriminated against because of her age, a tribunal has ruled. Carolina Gomes worked as branch administrator for a Winkworth franchise (The Property Industry Eye)