Employment law stories in the news – 25.07.2016 to 31.07.2016

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 the news between 25 July and 31 July 2016

  1. HIV charity unfairly dismissed CEO, employment tribunal rules – The head of the UK’s largest HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust was unfairly dismissed from her role, an employment tribunal has ruled. In 2014 Dr Rosemary Gillespie was appointed to reform the charity, which provides support services and campaigns on various issues related to AIDS and HIV. She was fired from the charity in July 2015, less than two years later (Pink News)
  2. Owen Smith proposes wealth tax to boost NHS spending – Labour leadership hopeful Owen Smith says he would introduce a wealth tax on the richest 1% in society to fund the NHS and tackle inequality in Britain. Mr Smith – who is challenging leader Jeremy Corbyn – said the “equality-busting” move would raise £3bn a year (BBC)
  3. National Steel firm fined £1.98million for safety failings – Tata Steel has been fined after two workers suffered injuries to their hands in two separate incidents involving machinery (HSE)
  4. Deliveroo workers’ contracts ban access to employment tribunals – Self-employed workers for restaurant delivery firm Deliveroo are being told in their contracts that they cannot go to court to try to be recognised as staff members with the firm. A clause in supplier contracts for the company says cyclists working for it cannot go to an employment tribunal if they are unhappy with their current status. If they do they must pay the company’s costs (The Guardian)
  5. ‘Fraud unravels all’: landmark Supreme Court ruling – In a landmark ruling for lawyers and insurers, the Supreme Court has paved the way for personal injury settlements to be successfully challenged if the claimant is subsequently found to have lied. The court ruled that a settlement in Hayward v Zurich for almost £135,000 be set aside and the claimant instead be paid an award of £14,720 (The Law Society Gazette)
  6. Corbyn pledges to scrap Blair union laws in favour of collective bargaining – Jeremy Corbyn would require companies with more than 250 employees to accept new industrial laws under which they would have to recognise a specific union with which to bargain over pay (The Guardian)
  7. Firm sentenced after worker’s arm severed – A Bristol based manufacturer of concrete products has been fined after a worker’s arm was torn off when it was pulled into the rotating tail pulley of a conveyor belt. Bristol Crown Court heard the injured man was making adjustments to a misaligned conveyor belt at Concrete Fabrications Ltd plant in Henbury, Bristol on 18 May 2015 (HSE)
  8. Civil court fees hike could deny people access to justice system, lawyers warned – Plans for a dramatic increase in court fees could deny people access to the justice system, lawyers have warned. Proposals out for consultation could see some of the costs of resolving disputes double to £500 (Herald Scotland)
  9. Sports Direct minimum wage investigation to cover shop workers – The official investigation into Sports Direct’s failure to pay its warehouse workers the national minimum wage is understood to have been widened to include the sportswear chain’s 13,000 retail workers (The Guardian)
  10. Immigration raid on Byron Hamburgers rounds up 35 workers – Dozens of staff at the Byron Hamburgers chain of restaurants have been arrested in an immigration swoop, it has emerged. The Home Office has confirmed 35 nationals from Brazil, Nepal, Egypt and Albania were among those rounded up in the raid, which took place across London on the morning of 4 July (The Guardian)