Employment law stories in the news – 10.08.2015 to 16.08.2015

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at ten employment law stories that have made headlines between 10 August and 16 August 2015, including:

  1. Tory MP urges May to review Met’s investigation into Asian officer – A senior Conservative MP has urged Theresa May to review the case of a retired Asian police officer who was recently cleared of sexual assault against a prisoner. Sir Peter Bottomley has written to the home secretary requesting a meeting to discuss the case, saying malice and incompetence may have played a part in the police investigation (The Guardian)
  2. Timber manufacturer fined after employee suffers severe hand injuries – A timber gate manufacturer in Daventry has been fined after a young employee lost two fingers on his left hand while working on machinery. The 27-year-old employee of Main Line Timber Limited was pulled into the rotating blade of an inadequately guarded circular saw which was not fitted with a riving knife or ‘take off’ table when the incident happened on 25 July 2014 (HSE)
  3. UK vows crackdown on illegal migrant employers – “Rogue employers” who give jobs to illegal migrants will be hit with “the full force of government machinery”, ministers have warned. Businesses who employ illegal workers are denying work to UK citizens and helping drive down wages, immigration minister James Brokenshire said (BBC)
  4. Suspended Derbyshire NHS chief is paid £18,000 despite not working – The suspended chief executive of a Derbyshire NHS trust has earned more than £18,000 despite not being at work. Steve Trenchard was suspended from his £150k role in June after an industrial tribunal ruled the chairman of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust called an employee a “whore” (The Derby Telegraph)
  5. Woman sacked ‘after falling out with colleague and changing her screen-saver to picture of witch’ – An airport worker was sacked after she changed a former pal’s screensaver to a picture of a witch when she was unfriended on Facebook, an employment appeal tribunal heard (The Mirror)
  6. Oil plant operator sentenced over safety failure – The operators of the Grangemouth Oil Refinery were sentenced today for safety failings relating to an incident in which a worker was injured at the plant. In October 2012, a Petroineos employee was carrying out a cleaning operation on a vent pipe and while opening a vent valve on a walkway 25 meters above ground, was sprayed in the face by low pressure steam (HSE)
  7. Police chiefs running covert operations accused of victimising officers – An official watchdog is investigating allegations that senior police chiefs running top-secret covert operations victimised three lower-ranking officers who challenged their competence and conduct. Two of the lower-ranking officers, who also say they were subjected to racial discrimination, have started legal action against the Metropolitan police (The Guardian)
  8. Fired HSBC Manager Says Disappointing Bonuses Prove Racism – A former HSBC Holdings Plc executive suing the bank for 15 million pounds ($23 million) said “extremely disappointing” bonus payments were linked to his race and religion, even if no one ever said “you are a Turkish Muslim and I don’t like you” (Bloomberg)
  9. Female lab technician at £35,000-a-year boys’ public school wins sex discrimination case for constructive dismissal after pupils told her ‘women should stay at home in the kitchen’ – A female lab technician at a £35,000-a-year boys’ school has won her case of sexual discrimination after being told women should ‘stay at home in the kitchen’. Hannah Miller, 39, worked in the physics department at Tonbridge School, Kent – one of the UK’s most prestigious boarding schools which counts the band Keane and author Frederick Forsythe among its alumni – between 2005 and 2014 (The Mail Online)
  10. Firm fined for worker’s death at paper mill – A company has been fined following the death of a worker who became trapped in unguarded machinery at a Devon paper mill. John Stoddart, 42, who lived in Cullompton, was attempting to smooth out felt on a conveyor at the Higher Kings Mill in the town when he was pulled into the machinery causing fatal injuries on 24 September 2011 (HSE)