Employment law stories in the news – 06.08.2018 to 12.08.2018

In the latest of our series of employment law stories in the news, we take a look at ten employment law-related stories that have made headlines between 6 August and 12 August 2018

  1. Doctor couple ‘locked nanny in room and asked to sell her kidney’ – Two doctors, a husband and wife, locked their nanny in a bedroom for two days without food and then asked her to sell her kidney, an employment tribunal was told yesterday (The Times)
  2. Former British Airways worker Sid Ouared ‘sacked for man bun’ says he felt ‘bullied’ – A former British Airways worker who says the company sacked him because of his man bun has told ITV News that the decision left him feeling “bullied” and “violated” (ITV)
  3. Independence views ‘protected by law’ – An employment tribunal has ruled that equality law protects an employee’s belief in Scottish independence. It came at a preliminary hearing on Chris McEleny’s case against his former employer, the Ministry of Defence (BBC)
  4. Unison lodges Supreme Court appeal against ‘completely wrong’ pay ruling – Unison has lodged an appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling that social care companies are not required to pay £400m in backpay to carers who perform ‘sleep-in’ shifts. The appeal will be considered by the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the removal of the requirement in June (Public Sector Executive)
  5. Leaked email was a ‘cloak’ to lay off lawyer claiming discrimination – A leaked internal email and a conversation overheard in a pub are not protected by legal professional privilege because they suggested some form of deception, an employment appeal has found. In X v Y Ltd, the Honourable Mrs Justice Slade DBE ruled that an employment tribunal had been wrong to strike out a case brought by a lawyer who had worked for his company for 27 years until his dismissal in January 2017 (The Law Society Gazette)
  6. Union lodges appeal application against £400m Mencap sleep-in shift ruling – Unison has lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court over a Court of Appeal judgment which could have saved the care sector £400m in back-pay to staff. Mencap and Care England – the representative body for social care providers – went to the Court of Appeal in March to challenge an Employment Tribunal ruling, made in 2016 and upheld at appeal last year (Civil Society)
  7. Over £390,000 of employment tribunal awards unpaid last year due to insolvency – More than £390,000 worth of employment tribunal awards went unpaid last year after the employers responsible were dissolved, liquidated or placed in administration. Figures obtained from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) by People Management under a freedom of information (FOI) request revealed that in 2017, 56 awards worth £394,505 in total were identified as being unpaid because of insolvency (People Management)
  8. Excluded defendant given chance to contest £75k damages – The Court of Appeal has ruled that a company ‘debarred’ from a liability trial should still be able to contest a future compensation remedy. Lord Justice Bean said the case was sufficiently complex that the company must have the chance to participate in a hearing before an employment judge (The Law Society Gazette)
  9. Judge calls for investigation into colleagues over race discrimination case – A judge is calling for an investigation into colleagues who tried to suspend him over remarks he made about racism and the judiciary after receiving a formal apology over the matter (The Guardian)
  10. Schoolgirl wins £15,000 damages after standing up to boss’s ‘humiliating behaviour and unwelcome sexual advances’ – A teenage schoolgirl who stood up to her boss in her first ever job at Pizza Hut has won £15,000 damages for sex harassment. The girl, who was 16 when she started, was sexually harassed, intimidated and had her hours cut after she rejected her supervisor’s advances (The Independent)