Employment law cases in the news – 25.01.2016 to 31.01.2016

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts, we take a look at employment law cases that have made the news between 25 January 2016 and 31 January 2016

  1. Unite settle with activist who claimed union hired him on zero hours contract – A whistle-blowing activist has reached a settlement with trade union Unite after allegedly being sacked for complaining he was hired on a zero-hours contract. Martyn Reuby, 60, a Unite member for over 42 years, claimed he was fired after continually raising the issue whilst working as a lecturer teaching best practice to union officials (The Mirror)
  2. Worker’s legs crushed by concrete table tennis tables – Manchester table tennis table manufacturer has been fined after an employee’s legs were crushed when four one-ton concrete tables toppled over. Following the incident which occurred on the 20 February 2015, the employee spent 10 weeks in hospital and has been unable to return to work since (HSE)
  3. ‘Fat’ jibe publican loses sex discrimination case – A bar manager at Hungerford’s John O’Gaunt Inn has won her claim for sex discrimination and unfair dismissal. An employment tribunal awarded Rachel Skeffington more than £17,000. The 29-year-old was sacked by boss Mark Genders after she fell unexpectedly pregnant towards the end of 2014 (Newbury Today)
  4. RBS Trader Fired in Currency Probe Wins Suit, But No Money – A former senior trader at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc who lost his job amid the currency market rigging scandal won part of an employment lawsuit, but received no compensation because a London judge said he would have been fired anyway (Bloomberg)
  5. Hollow victory for former RBS trader after judge ruled sacked senior employee should receive no compensation despite winning part of his claim for unfair dismissal – A victory of sorts was claimed by the RBS Group after a judge ruled that a sacked senior employee should receive no financial compensation despite winning part of his unfair dismissal claim against the Edinburgh-based bank (The National)
  6. Power company fined £1m after runner electrocuted – A company which maintains the power distribution supplies to London, the South East and East of England has been fined £1million after a runner was electrocuted by a low-hanging high voltage power cable. Dr James Kew was running on land in Newport, Saffron Walden, Essex, when he came into contact with a cable which should have been 5.5 metres above ground (HSE)
  7. Citigroup Workers Told to Share Client Notes, Ex-Trader Says – Citigroup Inc. executives encouraged foreign-exchange traders to use electronic chat rooms to share client orders with employees of rival banks, a practice that forced finance companies to pay $10 billion in regulatory fines, according to evidence presented to a London employment tribunal (Bloomberg)
  8. Banker who won £3.2m following employment tribunal sues former colleagues for libel – A banker who won a £3.2 million payout after suffering a mental breakdown is now suing two of her male former colleagues for libel, claiming they waged a vicious ‘campaign’ designed to ruin her professional reputation (The Telegraph)
  9. Major NI insurance firm criticised in tribunal – Northern Ireland’s largest locally-owned insurance broker has been ordered to pay out almost £46,000 to a former senior staff member for unfairly dismissing her. Anne McLarnin, a single mother of two, had worked for Abbey Insurance Brokers for 16 years and was aged 48 when she left the company last summer (News Letter)
  10. Dundee postie waiting on hefty payout after winning case against sacking – Royal Mail are facing a hefty payout to a postie unfairly sacked over a missing bag of mail – because it might not have been him that lost it. Stewart Walker was fired last year by bosses in Dundee after a bag of letters fell out of the back of a van in the Broughty Ferry area of the city (The Courier)