Employment law stories in the news – 28.05.2018 to 03.06.2018

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 headlines between 28 May and 4 June 2018

  1. Poundland shop manager accused of stealing drink wins £20,000 at tribunal – A Poundland store manager was unfairly and wrongfully dismissed when she was fired for allegedly stealing a drink, Norwich Employment Tribunal has ruled. Miss Stokes was awarded £20,930.48 plus costs after employment judge Postle found that the discount chain had no reasonable basis for its belief of her supposed misconduct and followed a flawed investigation process (People Management)
  2. Stobart ex-chief Andrew Tinkler faces employment tribunal – Stobart’s colourful former chief executive, Andrew Tinkler, faces an employment tribunal after falling out with his former business partner (The Times)
  3. Dundee bus driver sacked after blackout at home wins tribunal – A Dundee bus driver who was sacked after losing her licence following a blackout was unfairly dismissed, a tribunal has ruled (The Evening Telegraph)
  4. Female cop sues Met Police after claiming fellow officer sent her pics of his truncheon – A female cop is suing the Met Police after claiming a colleague sent her photos of his todger. PC Alexandra Kunicki also had to turn down the man’s sexual advances on four occasions, a tribunal heard (The Sun)
  5. Company fined after worker injured by wall collapse – A landscaping services company was sentenced today after a worker was seriously injured when a retaining wall collapsed into a trench (HSE)
  6. Judicial hiring spree as tribunal cases soar – HM Judiciary is to recruit more than 50 employment judges to cope with the soaring caseload in employment tribunals and will, for the first time, open the role to those without previous judicial experience (The Law Society Gazette)
  7. Sacked Essex chief fire officer’s ‘£280,000’ settlement – A chief fire officer, who was sacked, received a settlement of £280,000 from the public purse, the BBC understands. David Johnson was suspended for unknown reasons from the Essex Fire & Rescue Service in April 2015 and dismissed in April 2017 (BBC)
  8. Sacked drivers take Amazon to tribunal – Two delivery drivers are taking Amazon to an employment tribunal because they say they were sacked after they had claimed that working conditions at its sub-contractors were illegal (The Times)
  9. Employer told to pay £11,000 for inserting ‘maternity pause’ clause into contract – A former optician was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against after her employer tried to use a contractual ‘pause clause’ to reclaim training costs during her maternity leave, Birmingham Employment Tribunal has ruled (People Management)
  10. Ex-Scottish Police Authority boss forced to appear at whistleblower tribunal – The former chief executive of the Scottish Police Authority has been compelled to appear at a whistleblower’s employment tribunal. John Foley took early retirement from the organisation last year, receiving a controversial £57,000 golden handshake (The Scotsman)