Employment law stories in the news – 02.06.2014 to 08.06.2014

MoJIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news this week, we take a look at ten stories relating to employment law that have made the news between 2 June and 8 June 2014.

  1. Gay terror policeman claims he was forced to quit after being told bosses monitor sex app Grindr and officers taunted him saying he should ‘become a hairdresser’ – A gay policeman who claims he was forced to quit after being taunted by fellow officers is suing Metropolitan Police for race and homophobic discrimination. Special Branch detective Kevin Maxwell, who won a previous discrimination case against the force, claims he was driven to resign after officers taunted him by saying he should become ‘a hairdresser or cabin crew’ (The Daily Mail)
  2. Sainsbury’s manager fired for ‘trying to rig internal survey’ sues for £139,000 – A Sainsbury’s manager is suing the supermarket for up to £139,000 for wrongful dismissal, lost salary, benefits and lapsed shares after he was sacked for allegedly trying to rig an internal feedback survey. Colin Adesokan, 47, was fired from his London regional manager’s job in October after a whistleblower sent an email to chief executive Justin King (The Evening Standard)
  3. More than £1 million paid to employees by Portsmouth City Council to prevent legal action over workplace disputes – Councils have paid out millions of pounds to employees in order to stop them taking legal action over workplace disputes. The payouts come in the form of settlement agreements and are used to avoid potentially costly tribunals over problems staff have had during their employment (The Portsmouth News)
  4. Muslim boss who racially abused Sikh employee is told to pay him £18k – An Indian Sikh who was degraded and racially abused by his Muslim boss and colleagues has been awarded £18,000 at an employment tribunal. Paramjit Singh, a forecourt cleaner at a garage in Greenock, was called a “lazy low-caste Sikh” and forced to repeatedly carry out demeaning tasks (Herald Scotland)
  5. Tennis player sues Lawn Tennis Association claiming discrimination – A young tennis player is suing the sport’s governing body, claiming ongoing race discrimination is damaging his career. Isaac Stoute, 18, says white players with lower rankings are being favoured over him for funding, training opportunities, tournament selection, and publicity by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) (BBC)
  6. Council under fire for ‘dragging out’ equal pay dispute – North Lanarkshire Council has been criticised for failing to enter talks on settling thousands of equal pay cases for female staff despite admitting mistakes were made over the women’s terms and conditions. Thousands of current and former female staff have been in dispute with North Lanarkshire Council for more than eight years arguing they were earning less than men in comparable but different jobs. Some have died while waiting for the case to be settled (Herald Scotland)
  7. Business Chiefs’ Pay Soaring Despite Coalition Restraint Efforts – Chief executives are still enjoying “runaway” growth in the size of their pay packets despite coalition efforts for restraint, a new study has found. The average pay for chief executives in 67 companies studied was £4.5 million last year, according to the High Pay Centre. This marked an increase from the £4.3m recorded by pay researcher Manifest/MM&K in 2012 (The Huffington Post)
  8. FCA sees 64% rise in whistleblowing warnings – The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has seen a 64% increase in the number of whistleblowing reports, according to a Freedom of Information Request (FOI). Law firm Pinsent Masons obtained an FOI that showed that the FCA saw an increase from the average of 338 warnings per month in its final year as the Financial Services Authority to 556 a month since April last year (Citywire)
  9. Sacked doctor hopes to win at least £6.5m in damages from Coventry NHS – Unfairly sacked doctor Raj Mattu says he hopes to win at least £6.5million in damages. If successful, his claim would be the biggest ever compensation for a dismissal for a doctor in the UK (The Coventry Telegraph)
  10. Minimum wage underpayers ‘named and shamed’ – but exposed businesses account for less than 1 per cent of the problem – The Government has “named and shamed” 25 businesses that failed to pay their employees the minimum wage, in what it says is a message to employers who break the law that they will “face tough consequences” (The Independent)