Employment law cases in the news – 11.07.2016 to 17.07.2016

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law cases in the news, we take a look at ten employment law cases that have made the news between 11 July 2016 and 17 July 2016

  1. Former Heart of England employee loses unfair dismissal claim – A former employee of the Heart of England Co-operative has lost a legal claim for unfair dismissal. Mr Ashwin Rathod, who worked in a warehouse, was one of the dozens of Heart of England employees who lost their jobs following the closure of the society’s department store in Coventry in October last year (Cooperative News)
  2. Drinks manufacturer in court over workers loss of hand – An Ellesmere Port based home brewing kit manufacturer has been fined after an employee’s right hand was severed while cleaning a blending machine. SPL International Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an incident at Poole Hall Industrial Estate, Ellesmere Port on the 21 October 2014 (HSE)
  3. Ex-soldier ‘thrilled’ after winning Post Traumatic Stress Disorder case against East Riding Council – A soldier who has battled post-traumatic stress disorder for more than a decade has won a disability discrimination case against East Riding Council after they “neglected” the severity of his disease (The Hull Daily Mail)
  4. Ex-Fortress investment group employee with motor neurone disease sues his firm for disability discrimination – Michael Johnson, a former executive at Fortress Investment, is suing his company for firing him as he was undergoing treatment for motor neurone disease (MND), a degenerative syndrome (The Independent)
  5. Sir Elton John loses battle to gag press from reporting sexual harassment case – Sir Elton John settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with a British man and tried to gag a newspaper from reporting the case. The claims against the singer, who strongly denied any wrongdoing, were withdrawn when he paid the man a six-figure sum out of court, it is believed (The Metro)
  6. Legal hearing in Uber workers challenge to begin next week – The Central London Employment Tribunal will next week begin hearing two test cases against the company behind the taxi hailing app Uber. The hearing, which begins on 20 July 2016, will hear the cases brought by law firm Leigh Day and supported by the GMB union (Lexology)
  7. Company fined for safety failings after worker injures hand on lathe – A company in Leeds, has been fined after a worker suffered injury when his hand came into contact with a lathe. Rotherham Magistrates’ Court heard how an employee of Rotherham Group Realisations Limited was tasked with turning and polishing metal bars with no specific instructions on how this should be completed (HSE)
  8. Coombe Boys’ School teacher fired after ‘inappropriate’ artist choice causes pupil to Google explicit images – An art teacher was sacked after a GCSE pupil stumbled upon explicit images when Googling an artist at a New Malden school, a tribunal has heard (Surrey Comet)
  9. Court rules firm can seek damages against former partner – The High Court has ruled that a firm can seek damages against a former partner who transferred a conditional fee agreement when he left. Martyn Brown had prepared the CFA for a personal injury client in October 2003 when he was still at Liverpool firm FPH Law (The Law Society Gazette)
  10. Police whistle-blower was viewed as “an irritant” – A whistle-blower who voiced fears that flaws in anti-terror plans were exposing the public to risk was viewed as “an irritant” by her superiors at scandal-hit South Yorkshire Police, an employment tribunal found (The Yorkshire Post)