Employment law cases in the news – 30.11.2015 to 06.12.2015

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law cases in the news, we take a look at eight employment law cases that have made headlines between 30 November to 6 December 2015

  1. Worker injured when he was crushed by metal folding machine – A company which manufactures office equipment has been fined after a trainee worker was injured when he was crushed by a metal folding machine. Newport Magistrates’ Court heard how an employee of F C Brown (Steel Equipment) Limited of Newport had entered the guarded area of a metal folding machine to fix a fault. Whilst in this area he was crushed between the fixed body of the machine and the machine’s moving manipulator arm, causing serious injury (HSE)
  2. Worker sacked for photocopying rota wins £15,000 payout – A cook who was sacked for photocopying his staff rota has been awarded more than £15,000 at an employment tribunal. Managers at Eildon House nursing home in Edinburgh suspected Mark Knowles was passing on information about staffing levels to the care watchdog so dismissed him for gross misconduct (Herald Scotland)
  3. Helen Marks: Tribunal “whore” case worker fears she ‘could not trust people’ again – A former Derbyshire NHS worker who won an employment tribunal after it ruled her boss had called her a “whore” has told a hearing that she fears returning to work because she “could not trust people”. Helen Marks was “harassed” by a senior official in a bid to “violate her dignity and create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment for her”, an industrial tribunal ruled (The Derby Telegraph)
  4. Former Salisbury District Hospital worker Mark Wyeth loses employment tribunal over drug abuse cover-up allegations – A former hospital worker who says he was forced out of his job for whistleblowing has lost an employment tribunal. Mark Wyeth, 54, said he twice reported to his bosses at Salisbury District Hospital allegations that a colleague, referred to as only OPD1, took anaesthetic taken from store cupboards at the hospital (The Salisbury Journal)
  5. Pioneering transplant surgeon, 57, fights for his job after getting sacked for delaying surgery to an NHS patient in favour of a private client, tribunal hears – A pioneering transplant surgeon is fighting for his job after getting sacked for delaying surgery to an NHS patient in favour of a private client, an employment tribunal heard today. Professor Nadey Hakim, 57, of Barnet, North London, claims his sacking by Imperial College has deprived very ill patients of a diabetes cure (The Mail Online)
  6. Companies sentenced in HSE inspector’s “most horrific case” – Two North West companies have been fined following the death of two workers at a Merseyside woodchip factory. James Bibby, 25, and Thomas Elmer, 27, were both killed when carrying out maintenance work on a conveyor belt at the Sonae factory in Kirkby (HSE)
  7. Birmingham school headteacher banned pictures of pigs, court hears – The headteacher of a school linked to an alleged plot by Islamist hardliners to influence state schools ordered staff to remove children’s books containing pictures of pigs, an employment tribunal in Birmingham has heard (The Guardian)
  8. British Gas appeal in holiday pay case goes to employment tribunal – The issue of whether holiday pay should be bumped up to include additional benefits to go towards commission payments goes to an employment tribunal this week. The case focuses on a former sales employee of British Gas. In 2014, the European court of justice (ECJ) ruled that the salesman, whose salary included significant commission payments, should not be financially disadvantaged by the fact he could not earn commission during his holiday (The Guardian)