Employment law stories in the news – 17.11.2014 to 23.11.2014

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at employment law stories that have made headlines between 17 November and 23 November 2014.

  1. Grayling defends Tribunal reforms as vital to business – Reforms to the Tribunal system that have led to a 70 per cent reduction in claims have been defended by justice secretary Chris Grayling. Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Grayling said the impact of the reforms was being monitored, but change was “necessary” to stop businesses from being threatened by “disaffected employees” (The Yorkshire Post)
  2. Property developer and builder in court over death at construction site – A Middlesex property development firm and a Buckinghamshire contractor have been ordered to pay a total of over £180,000 for safety failings after a worker was killed whilst driving a dumper truck during construction works at a former military base in Buckinghamshire (HSE)
  3. Company director fined for illegally accessing mobile phone company’s customer database – A company director has been fined after illegally accessing one of Everything Everywhere’s (EE) customer databases. Matthew Devlin, 25, from Halifax, Yorkshire, used details of when customers were due a mobile phone upgrade to target them with services offered by his own telecoms companies (ICO)
  4. Nortel: Redundant workers ‘entitled to £50k for unfair dismissal’ – Staff who lost their jobs at the Nortel factory in County Antrim, are entitled to unfair dismissal payments of more than £50,000, a tribunal has ruled. It follows a test case brought by a worker who claimed the Canadian firm failed to properly consult with each employee before making them redundant (BBC)
  5. Compass Group whistleblower case to be heard in UK – A whistleblower who was sacked last year by a subsidiary of the FTSE 100 caterer Compass Group after making repeated allegations of corruption has won the right to have his employment tribunal heard in the UK (HITC Business)
  6. Nottingham Forest settle David Kelly unpaid bonus case – Nottingham Forest has settled a legal dispute with one of its former coaches over alleged unpaid bonuses and for breach of contract. David Kelly, 48, who has played for Wolves, Leicester City and Newcastle, was sacked by the club in March (BBC)
  7. Almost 10,000 Lloyds staff to receive back pay over denied pay rises – Almost 10,000 current and former employees of Lloyds Banking Group – the vast majority of whom are women – are each to receive hundreds of pounds in back pay after the bank denied them pay rises (The Guardian)
  8. Ed Miliband re-launches PM campaign with new battle against zero-hour contracts – Businesses and unions are digging in for an election-year battle over zero-hour contracts and what they mean for workers Ed Miliband re-launched his campaign to be the next Prime Minister last week, with a new attack on zero-hour contracts and the treatment of workers (City AM)
  9. Wimbledon building firm risked workers’ lives – A construction company in south west London has been prosecuted for exposing its workforce to serious dangers on a building site in Holland Park. Several serious risks were identified during a visit by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors in November 2013 as part of a nationwide campaign by HSE focusing on basement construction works (HSE)
  10. Redmans wins £30,000 for client in race discrimination Employment Tribunal claim – Redmans Solicitors win over £30,000 for client in a race discrimination claim against a West London nightclub in the Employment Tribunal (Redmans)