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
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)