Employment tribunal cases in the news this week – 31.03.2014 to 06.04.2014

MoJIn the latest of our series of posts on employment tribunal cases in the news this week, we take a look at ten employment tribunal cases that have made the news between 31 March 2014 and 6 April 2014.

  1. 999 ambulance call handler who sued bosses over hot-desking could take his legal fight to Europe – A 999 operator who sued his bosses because he was not allowed his own desk is considering taking his legal fight to Europe – after top judges threw out his case. Nathan Roberts, who has an anxiety disorder, claims that a hot-desking policy introduced by the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) forced him to resign because he would suffer panic attacks after finding colleagues in his preferred seat (The Manchester Evening News)
  2. Morrisons ‘denied Muslim couple Ramadan break’, employment tribunal told – Supermarket chain Morrisons unfairly denied a Muslim couple holidays during the holy month of Ramadan, it has been claimed. Donna Tunkara, 32, and her husband Yassin, 31, from Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, worked for eight years at the firm’s warehouse in Stockton (BBC)
  3. Ex-parking boss loses racism claim against Dundee City Council – A Ghana-born former employee of Dundee City Council was not subject to racial harassment by being called “Jimmy Manyana” by colleagues. An employment tribunal has rejected the claim of James Owusu, former parking services team leader, who was sacked for gross misconduct in 2012 (The Courier)
  4. Disgraced manager of troubled Hartlepool charity axed – and former employees still owed £22k – The disgraced manager of a troubled Hartlepool charity which is being investigated by the Charity Commission and fraud squad detectives has been axed. The new committee at the under-fire Manor Residents’ Association, in the town, confirmed former councillor Angie Wilcox was asked to leave her role within the organisation (The Hartlepool Mail)
  5. Dad to sue leisure bosses after son’s employment tribunal fight – An angry dad is suing North Lanarkshire Leisure for allegedly blackening his name during a dispute over his son’s job at a sports centre. The man claims bosses at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility concocted a criminal charge against him in order to stop him investigating a culture of bullying and favouritism (The Motherwell Times)
  6. Derby shop manager in wages claim – A Judge has given the owners of a Derby fashion business a deadline to respond to a legal claim for unpaid wages by a former shop manager or face the possibility of losing the case. The ultimatum of April 14 was given by Birmingham Employment Tribunal judge George Alliott as he tried to identify who were the correct respondents following a legal claim for unpaid wages by Ann Patel (The Derby Times)
  7. Administrators ordered to pay £20,000 to Monroe House care assistant – A Dundee care assistant who was sacked for gross misconduct over an incident where she was investigated by police has won more than £20,000 for unfair dismissal (The Courier)
  8. Pc has accused me of racism because she didn’t get her way, says sergeant – A senior police officer in an elite Scotland Yard unit who is accused of racism by a black female colleague today denied that he was a bigot and said the woman had brought the case because she was “dissatisfied” at not getting her own way (The Evening Standard)
  9. West Midlands Police facing age discrimination claims from 500 retired officers – More than 500 former officers have lodged legal cases against West Midlands Police after being forced into early retirement. The force could now be hit with a multi-million pound bill for unlawfully curtailing the careers of its most experienced cops (The Birmingham Post)
  10. Kirklees College lecturer wins £78,000 unfair dismissal case after “mental torture” in role – Janette Hirst, of Granny Hall Park, Brighouse, says she worked in the college’s electrical installation section for just over 12 years but the career she had worked so hard for slipped away from her following a change of management during the second half of 2010 (The Huddersfield Daily Examiner)