Employment law cases in the news – 23.02.2015 to 01.03.2015

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 news between 23 February and 1 March 2015

  1. Engineering firm in court after worker crushed by two-tonne frame – A Cumbrian engineering firm has been fined £12,000 after a worker suffered severe injuries when he was struck by a metal frame, weighing nearly two tonnes (HSE)
  2. Liverpool NHS Trust fined £10,000 after exposing workers to deadly asbestos fibres – A Liverpool NHS Trust was fined £10,000 after it emerged workers may have been exposed to potentially-deadly asbestos fibres. The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the fibres were discovered in the basement of its offices at Derwent House on London Road in January 2013 (The Liverpool Echo)
  3. Suffolk Constabulary could face seven-figure payout if more than 30 ex-officers win legal battle over compulsory retirement – Cash-strapped Suffolk Constabulary could face a seven-figure payout if legal claims by 32 former officers forced to leave due to cost-cutting succeed (EADT)
  4. Parking switch sacking ‘unfair’, says employment tribunal judge – A Council officer was unfairly dismissed for his part in a parking contract debacle, an employment judge has ruled. Cliff Harrison was fired by Worthing Borough Council in 2013 for his involvement in the cancelling of a decade-long NCP contract (The Argus)
  5. Senior fiscal wins unfair dismissal employment tribunal case – A senior prosecutor who was sacked after being convicted of dangerous driving has won her case for unfair dismissal. Emma Knox was on her way to work as the Procurator Fiscal at Inverness when she tried to overtake a lorry and collided with a van coming the other way in December 2012 (Herald Scotland)
  6. Firm fined after worker seriously injured in scaffold fall – An Aberdeen-based building and joinery firm has been sentenced after a worker suffered serious injuries when he fell three metres from scaffolding that he was dismantling (HSE)
  7. Christian childcare worker claims she was unfairly sacked for talking about gay marriage with lesbian colleague – A Christian children’s worker who believes she was sacked because of her religious views is making an unfair dismissal claim against her former employer (The Belfast Telegraph)
  8. Kate Middleton’s former police officer wins unfair dismissal case against the Met – A decorated police officer who guarded Kate Middleton has returned to work after winning an unfair dismissal complaint. Ricky Haruna took legal action claiming harassment and wrongful dismissal after being sacked last June (The Mirror)
  9. McGrath v Ministry Of Justice in the EAT – tribunal lay member could not compare himself with employment judge for PTWR claim (BAILII)