Employment law stories in the news – 14.09.2015 to 20.09.2015

redmans-blog-newsIn 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 14 September 2015 and 20 September 2015

  1. Labour’s Angela Eagle condemns ‘draconian’ trade union bill – Angela Eagle, the newly appointed shadow business secretary, has accused the government of mounting a draconian attack on trade unions despite evidence that strike action has fallen by 90% over the past two decades (The Guardian)
  2. Freight trailer firm fined for dangerous work at height – A freight trailer manufacturer has been fined for dangerous work at height after a worker fell and injured his hand whilst working on a fragile roof. Gray & Adams Limited were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after 50 year old John Strachan suffered a fractured hand when he fell on the roof of the brake department on 11 December 2013 at the company’s Fraserburgh site (HSE)
  3. HMRC flexes new powers on contract and freelance workers in £5.5bn raid – Thousands of contractors and freelancers have become ensnared in a £5.5bn tax grab – aimed initially at wealthy tax dodgers – that allows HM Revenue & Customs to demand backdated taxes to be paid, in full, within a three-month deadline (The Telegraph)
  4. Sacked staff at National Library of Wales receive payouts – Two senior staff members unfairly dismissed by the National Library of Wales received payouts totalling £153,848, annual accounts show. Arwel Jones and Elwyn Williams were demoted by two grades over concerns about the way a tender had been awarded and managed for promotional work (BBC)
  5. Worker confronts M&S chief over ‘poverty wages’ – Marks and Spencer’s chief executive, Marc Bolland, has been confronted by one of his employees demanding that he pay staff the living wage. The executive, whose pay package this year totalled £2.1m, was presented with a T-shirt on Friday bearing the slogan “simply pay your M&S staff living wage” by 27-year-old shop worker Oliver Knowles (The Guardian)
  6. City trader seeks £3.5m from US bank, alleging sexist behaviour drove her out – A former City bond trader is seeking £3.5m from the US investment bank Jefferies, alleging she was driven out of her job and was exposed to sexist behaviour on the trading floor (The Guardian)
  7. Hewlett-Packard to cut up to 30,000 jobs as it plans split – Hewlett-Packard says it will cut another 25,000-30,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as it plans to split the company in two. It follows 55,000 job cuts announced earlier this year. The losses will come in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which is splitting from the printer and PC business (BBC)
  8. Transport company fined after crate falls on worker – A transport company firm has been fined for safety failings after a worker suffered serious injuries when a crate fell on him whilst he was unloading crates from a container (HSE)
  9. Former trader claims Lloyds made him redundant over whistleblowing – A former foreign exchange trader at Lloyds Banking Group has accused the bank of making him redundant because he was a whistleblower after he raised concerns about the unit, including about a currency trade for supermarket Tesco (The Guardian)
  10. Barclays banker in Qatar deal sues over pay – A senior Barclays investment banker, who sources say is one of four people being investigated by Britain’s financial watchdog over a 2008 fundraising involving Middle East investors, is suing the bank in a dispute about pay (Reuters)