Employment law stories in the news – 13.05.2019 to 19.05.2019

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the new, we take a look at ten employment law stories that have made headlines between 13 May 2019 and 19 May 2019

  1. Woman wins sexual harassment claim against ‘inappropriate’ boss of Milton Keynes company – A female sales manager has won a legal claim for sexual harassment by the boss of a Milton Keynes firm after he allegedly wanted her to sleep with him (The MK Citizen)
  2. Nurse Sarah Kuteh who preached to Darent Valley Hospital patients was sacked fairly, rules appeal court – A nurse who preached to patients and even asked one to sing a psalm in an encounter described as “like a Monty Python skit” was fairly dismissed, a court of appeal has ruled (Kent Online)
  3. Sacked receptionist awarded £4,700 over unfair dismissal during pregnancy – The owner of a shut-down firm has been ordered to pay almost £5,000 to a former receptionist who lost her job after contracting a pregnancy-related illness. Employment Judge Jones, sitting at the East London tribunal, said Ms K. Nasreen was treated unfavourably because of her condition and was subject to a discriminatory dismissal (The Law Society Gazette)
  4. Full-time judges needed to clear tribunal backlog – Fees spent on part-time judges have leapt to more than £6.6 million to deal with a backlog of employment cases. The Ministry of Justice said that it spent £6,616,525 on part time employment tribunal judges in 2017-18, up by 71 per cent on the previous year as recruitment of full-time judges has lagged (The Sunday Times)
  5. Care worker in line for £10,000 payout over race claim – A care worker is in line for a £10,000 plus payout amid claims he was racially abused by a colleague and his bosses failed to act. Jay Johnson told management at Key Care and Support he didn’t like working at a particular care home because he had been subjected to racist remarks (The Lancaster and Morecambe Citizen)
  6. Monocle intern claims victory and £2,000 after title admits underpaying her – An intern has claimed a victory after receiving a cheque for more than £2,000 from Monocle, settling a dispute over unpaid wages (Press Gazette)
  7. Tribunal orders injury to feelings award for employee who was asked to keep her sexuality a secret – Last month, an Employment Tribunal ordered an employer to pay a former employee the sum of £8,000 (plus interest), in the form of an injury to feelings award, following its earlier judgment that the employee had been directly discriminated against on the basis that she was a lesbian (Lexology)
  8. Bullying and sexual harassment rife among lawyers, global survey finds – Bullying and sexual harassment are rife in the legal profession, according to a global survey that identifies Britain as somewhere such behaviour is prevalent (The Guardian)
  9. Gay adoption row magistrate appeals against dismissal – A former magistrate who rejected an application from a same-sex couple to adopt a child has appealed against a decision to remove him from the bench. Richard Page, of Headcorn, Kent, claimed he had been discriminated against at a London tribunal because of his Christian beliefs (BBC)
  10. Probation officer accused of ‘aggressively abusive’ relationship with offender wins £60,000 for unfair dismissal – A probation officer accused of developing an abusive and controlling relationship with a former offender has been awarded £60,000 for unfair and wrongful dismissal (People Management)