Employment law cases in the news – 21.11.2016 to 27.11.2016

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 the news between 21 November 2016 and 27 November 2016

  1. Bicycle couriers start tribunal tussle over worker rights – The latest legal battle over rights and responsibilities in the “gig economy” opens on Tuesday with the first of four cases brought by London bicycle couriers. The employment tribunal brought by Maggie Dewhurst against CitySprint is the latest in a series of cases in which workers are fighting to stop companies from classifying them as self-employed contractors who do not receive rights and protections (The Financial Times)
  2. CitySprint faces tribunal over rights of freelance workers – The delivery firm CitySprint is to become the latest British business embroiled in a legal dispute over the gig economy when it faces demands at an employment tribunal to treat its freelance couriers as workers (The Guardian)
  3. M&S unfairly sacked worker on sick leave – A woman who won an industrial tribunal judgment against Marks & Spencer, which had sacked her while she was on sick leave, says she was “just another number” to the firm. Sally Roach, 55, joined the company in 1986 and had worked as a visual merchandiser in the Hereford branch since 1995 but had been off work for a year with serious complications after a hysterectomy. (The Times)
  4. Last-minute witnesses rejected from Treehouse Nursery, Wanstead, tribunal where teacher claims boss asked her to watch ‘Jewish Girls Gone Wild’ porno – A last-ditch attempt to hear new witnesses in the tribunal case of a nursery teacher who claims her boss invited her to watch pornography in the school office has been thrown out (East London & West Sussex Guardian)
  5. €32k for social worker who was unfairly dismissed – Philip Doyle was sacked by the Three Steps organisation arising from the incident involving the 12-year-old at one of the group’s residential homes in April 2014. Three Steps sacked Mr Doyle after concluding he used “unnecessary and excessive force and unauthorised physical restraints” (The Irish Examiner)
  6. Senior former manager sues CPS for unfair dismissal – A senior former manager is suing the Crown Prosecution Service for unfair and constructive dismissal in an employment claim that has exposed strains in the way cases are brought to trial (The Guardian)
  7. Tribunal reserves judgment on judges’ pensions – The  employment tribunal is expected to deliver its verdict on the pensions dispute between judges and the lord chancellor in the next few weeks after a seven-day public showdown reached its finale yesterday afternoon (The Law Society Gazette)
  8. Birmingham school faces second discrimination case – A school accused of ethnic discrimination against a teaching assistant is facing similar allegations after a senior staff member was charged with racially abusing a teacher (The Guardian)
  9. ‘You’ll be great at flying into towers’: Top City banker accused of viciously taunting his Lebanese colleague who was training to be a pilot – A city banker branded wealthy Middle Eastern clients ‘camel f******’, the French ‘rats’ and called a Lebanon-born colleague a terrorist, a tribunal was told (The Mail Online)
  10. Construction company fined after worker fell 6 meters – A Derbyshire based engineering construction company has been prosecuted after a worker fell and suffered severe injuries. A worker was repairing a fibreboard roof of a barn and using two homemade crawling boards when he fell 6meters on to the floor below, sustaining serious injuries to his head, hip, and lungs (HSE)