Employment tribunal stories in the news this week – 21.04.2014 to 27.04.2014

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 21 April and 27 April 2014.

  1. Guard who struck youth with basket is awarded €20,000 – The Irish arm of supermarket giant Tesco has been ordered to pay more than €20,000 to a security worker who struck a youth with a shopping basket. The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) awarded €20,885 after finding that Olatunji Lyinolakan had been unfairly dismissed by Tesco Ireland Ltd following the night-time incident at one of its stores (The Independent.ie)
  2. Dunnes Stores worker awarded €8,000 after spy camera catches her eating deli food – A Dunnes Stores worker who was fired after admitting to eating deli food without paying has been awarded €8,000 by the Republic’s Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) (The Belfast Telegraph)
  3. Gravesend man Michael Caller told job at Palmer and Harvey was ‘at risk after tumour surgery’ – A cancer sufferer is taking his former employer to a tribunal over claims he was made redundant because he was off work while having surgery. Michael Caller, of West Street, Gravesend, was a transport manager for wholesalers Palmer & Harvey (Kent Online)
  4. Speak English or you’re fired! Foreign workers banned from speaking their own language or told they face the sack – Foreign workers employed by arts and craft chain Hobbycraft have been told to speak English or face the sack. Staff at the supplier’s distribution warehouse in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, were hauled in for a meeting this week after difficulties arose with different nationalities conversing only in their native tongue (The Daily Mail)
  5. Tribunal rules Dundee teacher was not unfairly sacked – A Dundee teacher was not unfairly dismissed for her lengthy absences at a poorly performing school. The city council decided that Joyce Cuthbert could not be kept in her post as support for learning teacher at St Andrew’s RC Primary School, where she had 175 days off over six years (The Courier)
  6. Blackburn student to sue Domino’s Pizza over language rule – A student is to take one the UK’s biggest firms to court after they warned staff they must speak English. Stuart Horton, 47, quit his job at Domino’s over a notice warning staff they must speak in English or face disciplinary action (The Lancashire Telegraph)
  7. Male workers at Welsh university win equal pay claim – Twenty-three male workers at a university in Wales who were paid less than their female counterparts have won around £500,000 in compensation after suing for sex discrimination (The Guardian)
  8. Former Egerton House Hotel owner claims she was pressured into £340 million debt agreement – The former owner of a top Bolton hotel told a hearing she was pressurised into signing an agreement meaning she was liable for the firm’s £340 million debt. Mrs Hampton left the business in November, 2012 and is now taking Egerton House Hotel Bolton Ltd to tribunal for unfair dismissal (The Bolton News)
  9. Christian nursery worker ‘sacked after refusing to read gay stories to children’ – Sarah Mbuyi, a Christian nursery worker, is to claim she was sacked from her job due to religious discimination, as a group backing her case says David Cameron’s defence of faith is ‘failing to play out’ (The Telegraph)
  10. No winner in conflict that led to researcher’s dismissal – Imperial College London acted reasonably in sacking a researcher whose working relationship with his head of department had irretrievably broken down, an employment tribunal has ruled (The Times Higher Education)