Employment law stories in the news – 11.07.2016 to 17.07.2016

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

  1. Engineering company find for safety failings – An engineering company based in High Peak has been fined after a worker was injured. Stockport Magistrates’ Court heard how Darren Combs, a 50 year old fabricator/welder from Manchester was working for Thornsett Engineering Limited (HSE)
  2. Uber’s heading to the UK courts over workers’ rights – Uber and its drivers will head to court this week to battle it out in a legal case over workers’ rights. The hearing at an employment tribunal is due to begin in London and is expected to rule on the status of some Uber drivers in the first case of its kind in the UK (City AM)
  3. Maternity mentoring to be piloted at the bar – The Bar Council has established a mentoring scheme to help barristers with children return to work, days after the bar regulator published a report highlighting negative attitudes towards women returning from maternity leave (The Law Society Gazette)
  4. Hedge fund manager sacked from his £640k-a-year job days after motor neurone disease diagnosis, tribunal hears – A former army officer who was sacked from his £640,000-a-year job as a hedge fund manager days after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease is suing his former employers for disability discrimination (The Telegraph)
  5. Liz Truss replaces Michael Gove as justice secretary in May’s reshuffle – Former environment secretary Liz Truss has become the first female lord chancellor and justice secretary, replacing Michael Gove (The Law Society Gazette)
  6. NSS: New Government must act to outlaw caste discrimination – The National Secular Society is calling on the new government to legislate to outlaw caste discrimination, as directed by Parliament and the United Nations. During a House of Lords debate this week, the Government rebuffed repeated cross-party appeals to legislate specifically to outlaw caste-based discrimination (The National Secular Society)
  7. Brexit secretary vows no change to employment law – The Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis has given a strong indication that existing employment law would not be radically changed once the UK leaves the EU. Writing on a blog for the website Conservative Home, he said that “regulation already in place will stay for the moment, but the flood of new regulation from Europe will be halted” (Personnel Today)
  8. Engineering worker suffers life changing injuries – Engineering firm, Point Engineering (Hull) Ltd was sentenced today for safety breaches after a marine hatch and frame weighting more than 500 kilograms fell forward seriously injuring an employee and narrowly missing another person (HSE)
  9. Police inspector forced out of job for warning bosses about security risks – A police inspector was forced out of her job because she was seen as an “irritant” for warning bosses that their anti-terror plans were putting lives at risk, a tribunal has ruled (The Telegraph)