Employment law stories in the news – 01.10.2018 to 07.10.2018

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news we take a look at ten employment law-related stories that have made headlines between 1 October 2018 and 7 October 2018

  1. Construction company and director sentenced for health and safety failings – A construction company and its managing director have been sentenced after poor conditions at a building site were found to be dangerous (HSE)
  2. Restaurants face ban on taking share of tips – Restaurants will be legally barred from keeping tips from staff under plans to be announced by Theresa May on Monday. The move follows a public outcry in 2015, when it emerged that many High Street chains routinely took up to 10% of tips paid by credit and debit card (BBC)
  3. Employees may have longer to bring tribunal claims – Independent legal watchdog the Law Commission is considering extending the time limit allowed for tribunal claims to be submitted, in a consultation launched last week (People Management)
  4. Shop worker with cancer wins payout – A cancer patient working in a rural tourist shop has won a £10,000 payout after colleagues said they were fed up with her talking about her illness (The Times)
  5. Former sergeant awarded £95,000 after he was subjected to ‘unconscious discrimination’ – In May, an employment tribunal concluded that Zaheer Ahmed, a former sergeant with North Yorkshire Police, faced “unconscious” and “direct” racism due to his Pakistani ethnicity (Police Professional)
  6. Thousands to strike over equal pay dispute in Glasgow – Two unions have served notice for industrial action on Glasgow City Council in a dispute over equal pay. The GMB and Unison claim more than 8,000 workers will strike on 23 and 24 October (BBC)
  7. Ex-Cantor Trader’s ‘Wash Trades’ Lawsuit Heads to Full Trial – A former Cantor Fitzgerald LP bond trader, who says he was fired after blowing the whistle on what he describes as “wash trades,” must take his complaint to a full trial after a judge rejected his bid for an early verdict (Bloomberg)
  8. Commerzbank employee wins London sex and maternity discrimination case – A senior bank employee who says she was “marginalised” when she came back from maternity leave has won a sex and maternity discrimination claim against Commerzbank (Financial Times)
  9. Amazon offsetting pay rise by removing bonuses, union says – Amazon has been criticised for slashing benefits for UK warehouse workers, offsetting at least half of a big pay rise announced this week (The Guardian)
  10. Hackney Council worker says she was victim of racist, sexist and disability discrimination – A Hackney Council worker claims she was the victim of racist discrimination at her call centre after a manager said to her while she rolled a cigarette: “I hope you are not smoking marijuana in work time” (The Hackney Gazette)