Employment law stories in the news – 25.01.2016 to 31.01.2016
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 the news between 25 January 2016 and 31 January 2016
- Women should hold quarter of top jobs at major businesses, says CBI head – More needs to be done to propel women into the top jobs in Britain’s biggest businesses, to boost economic growth, according to the head of the CBI – who wants all major companies to ensure that a quarter of all senior roles are held by women (The Guardian)
- Black workers ‘face widening pay gap the more qualifications they earn’ – The pay gap faced by black workers widens the more qualifications they obtain, according to research revealing the challenges faced by ethnic minority Britons pursuing professional careers (The Independent)
- Construction workers denied access to auto-enrolment pensions – An explosion in the number of construction workers moved into “umbrella” companies to avoid them appearing as full-time employees is undermining auto enrolment pensions, say unions (The Guardian)
- Labour accuse Greens of ‘playing politics’ over Mayor Joe’s £89k legal bill – A Green party call for a review into why Liverpool council paid Mayor Joe Anderson’s £89,000 employment tribunal legal fees has been refused. Opposition party leader Tom Crone said there was a “mismatch” in information about why the council paid the legal bill for the tribunal – and tried to force an investigation by the local authority (The Liverpool Echo)
- Runcorn firm sentenced after HGV crushes worker to death – A Runcorn haulage firm has been ordered to pay £90,000 in fines and costs after an employee was crushed to death by a runaway lorry. Tony Schulze had been trying to connect a cab to a lorry trailer when the incident happened at Freight First Ltd’s premises on the Astmoor Industrial Estate on Goddard Road on 22 January 2011 (HSE)
- Dundee postie waiting on hefty payout after winning case against sacking – Royal Mail are facing a hefty payout to a postie unfairly sacked over a missing bag of mail – because it might not have been him that lost it. Stewart Walker was fired last year by bosses in Dundee after a bag of letters fell out of the back of a van in the Broughty Ferry area of the city (The Courier)
- More than half of BBC staff do not think bullying cases will be tackled fairly – More than half of BBC staff do not believe that cases of bullying or harassment would be tackled fairly by the corporation’s management. Just 47% of employees who responded to the BBC’s annual staff survey said that if they experienced or saw bullying or harassment that they would be confident that taking action would result in a “fair outcome” (The Guardian)
- High Court: criminal record checks are “arbitrary” and unlawful – The High Court has declared that the Government’s criminal record disclosure scheme is incompatible with the Human Rights Act. Ruling on a case last week, judges called the scheme used in England and Wales, which forces individuals to divulge their criminal record when applying for certain jobs, “arbitrary” and unlawful (Personnel Today)
- Hollow victory for former RBS trader after judge ruled sacked senior employee should receive no compensation despite winning part of his claim for unfair dismissal – A victory of sorts was claimed by the RBS Group after a judge ruled that a sacked senior employee should receive no financial compensation despite winning part of his unfair dismissal claim against the Edinburgh-based bank (The National)
- Ex-TSB manager wins payout for wrongful dismissal – A bank manager who was accused of being rude and threatening towards customers as she struggled to meet targets has been awarded £7,500 for wrongful dismissal. Lynne Adams, a former senior personal banking manager with the TSB, struggled to cope after bosses scrapped Payment Protection Insurance sales – a product she excelled at selling (Herald Scotland)