Employment law stories in the news – 04.12.2017 to 10.12.2017

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at ten employment law stories that have made headlines between 4 December 2017 and 10 December 2017

  1. Christian maths teacher sues school for religious discrimination after being suspended for calling a transgender pupil a girl rather than a boy – A maths teacher suspended for calling a transgender pupil a girl rather than a boy is suing his school for religious discrimination. The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that Joshua Sutcliffe, 27, was facing a disciplinary hearing for accidentally ‘misgendering’ the student during a lesson (The Daily Mail)
  2. Ulster ordered to pay £1 million over ‘sham’ redundancy process – Ulster University has been ordered to pay more than £1 million in compensation to 143 former employees after an employment tribunal condemned the redundancy process that they left under as a “sham” (The Times Higher Education Supplement)
  3. Retail worker wins tribunal after mental illness was overlooked – The Employment Tribunal upheld a claim for disability discrimination after an employer failed to take account of an employee’s disability when determining what action to take against him (CIPD)
  4. Courier firm accused of ‘blacklisting’ man who sued former employer – Addison Lee has been accused of “blacklisting” a gig economy worker because he had successfully sued a rival company for the right to the minimum wage and holiday pay (The Guardian)
  5. Tribunal: ‘I asked for baby leave and oil tycoon fired me’ – The former right-hand man of a global energy firm boss has claimed he was sacked after he asked for paternity leave. Steven Mearns, the former managing director of First Integrated Solutions, says chairman Ian Suttie became “erratic and irrational” after he requested two weeks off work (Energy Voice
  6. £100million ‘Tory Obama’ MP Adam Afriyie is sued for discrimination against disabled member of his staff – Wealthy MP Adam Afriyie, once dubbed the ‘Tory Obama’ owing to his status as a successful, black Conservative entrepreneur, is being sued over claims he discriminated against a disabled member of his staff (The Daily Mail)
  7. Victory for staff in Morrisons data breach claim – Employers could be vicariously liable for an employee’s misuse of data even if they have done all they reasonably can to prevent it and are not legally at fault, the UK’s first data leak group action case has determined (The Law Society Gazette)
  8. Nearly a third of black employees feel discrimination has hindered their career progression – Just under a third of black employees say that discrimination has affected their career progression, according to a report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (City AM)
  9. Equality watchdog gets tough over sex harassment at work – FTSE 100 companies are facing legal action if they fail to show evidence that they are tackling sexual harassment (The Times)
  10. A landmark workers’ rights case has been filed against the University of London – The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has filed a landmark test case with the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) against the University of London (the University) (Lexology)