Employment tribunal cases in the news this week – 17.02.2014 to 23.02.2014

MoJIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news this week, we take a look at ten employment tribunal cases that have made headlines between 17 February 2014 and 23 February 2014

  1. Ex-firefighter loses bully claim against his bosses – A former firefighter who claimed he was bullied at work has lost his claim for unfair dismissal. Tristan Jones, from Kidwelly, brought the claim following his dismissal from Mid and West Fire and Rescue Service last year, having been off work for more than 18 hours (The Carmarthen Journal)
  2. Former rugby international takes case against Leinster to employment tribunal – Former Irish international rugby player Reg Corrigan lost his coaching position with the Leinster branch of the IRFU in breach of employment legislation, he has claimed at an Employment Appeals Tribunal hearing. Mr Corrigan is seeking compensation for the loss of his position as scrum coach with Leinster in 2012 (The Irish Times)
  3. Senior Blackberry executive wins £400,000 payout over claims he was bullied by his bosses with personal insults and the silent treatment – A Blackberry mobile phone manager who claimed he was left feeling suicidal after being bullied by his bosses has won a £400,000 payout. Glen Hill, a former global strategic accounts manager who earned £88,000-a-year, claimed he was insulted before being subjected to ‘long silences’ (The Daily Mail)
  4. Council worker who was sacked after leaking information which lead to 11 sackings and criminal charges, waits three years for employment tribunal – A whistleblower who was sacked after he exposed a huge public property repairs scandal has been unable to fight his employment tribunal case for more than three years. The 50-year-old man was suspended by bosses at Edinburgh City Council in October 2010 for leaking information when he reported fears over mismanagement and corruption (The Daily Record)
  5. Former clerk wins £72,000 from Ludlow Town Council in unfair dismissal case – Veronica Calderbank won a claim for unfair dismissal against the town council in December at the end of a month-long employment tribunal hearing in Birmingham (The Shropshire Star)
  6. Teacher’s constructive dismissal claim waits on Employment Tribunal judgment – A teacher who says she was forced to resign from a Woodcote school will have to wait a month to find out the result of her legal claim. Rachel Ashley quit her role as a housemistress at the Oratory School in September 2012 because she says her complaints over the “appalling” behaviour of students were ignored (The Henley Standard)
  7. Firearms officer whose gun was too big for her hands wins sex discrimination case – A firearms officer has won a sex discrimination case against nuclear police chiefs – because her gun was too big for her small hands. Victoria Wheatley, part of the armed unit which protects the Sellafield atomic complex, could not reach her weapon’s trigger. She struggled with the grip of the pistol she was using – a Glock 17 – and her trainers failed to adjust it while carrying out a test shoot on which her job depends (The News and Star)
  8. East Lancashire call centre staff told to move to India to keep jobs – Bosses at an East Lancashire call centre told staff that they could relocate to India to keep their jobs, an employment tribunal has been told. Around 250 staff were sacked by outsourcing giant Sitel in November 2012 after employees were told the company had lost a major contract with the holiday website Expedia and the work was being exported to Bangalore (The Blackburn Citizen)
  9. Bank manager sacked after ‘forwarding lewd pornography’ gets compensation – A Bank of Ireland manager, sacked after he was identified as a link in an alleged pornographic chain of emails, has been awarded compensation by a Circuit Civil Court judge for unfair dismissal (The Irish Independent)
  10. Unpaid intern takes on British fashion house Alexander McQueen – The fashion house founded by the late designer Alexander McQueen is being sued by a former intern who worked unpaid for four months. Rachel Watson – not her real name but the one her lawyers want used – is claiming up to £6,415 in “lost wages” and says the fashion house broke the law by not paying her the national minimum wage (The Guardian)