Employment law stories in the news – 28.03.2016 to 03.04.2016

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at eight employment stories that have made headlines between 28 March 2016 and 3 April 2016

  1. £1.4m Derbyshire NHS sexual harassment scandal put before Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt – The husband of a woman who a tribunal ruled was sexually harassed has written to the Health Secretary with his concern over the £1.4million scandal. Former HR director Helen Marks was awarded £832,711 after the ex-chairman of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Alan Baines, was ruled to have sexually harassed her (The Derby Telegraph)
  2. National Living Wage comes into force – The new mandatory National Living Wage (NLW) has come into force, requiring employers to pay workers aged 25 and over at least £7.20 an hour. It is expected to give 1.8 million workers an immediate pay rise (BBC)
  3. Union readies for battle over B&Q pay deal – Shopworkers’ union Usdaw is preparing to challenge DIY giant B&Q over pay cuts imposed as part of measures to introduce the new National Living Wage. The £7.20 per hour minimum rate will be introduced for workers aged 25 and over from tomorrow (The National)
  4. Tata Port Talbot steelworks closure ‘could hit 15,000 jobs’ – About 15,000 jobs could be affected if a buyer is not found for Port Talbot’s steelworks, a councillor has claimed. Indian owner Tata Steel is selling its entire loss-making UK business but did not give an “open ended” commitment to keep plants open during the sale (BBC)
  5. NHS suspends board member over same sex remarks – A former magistrate has been suspended from an NHS board after making controversial comments about gay adoption. Devout Christian Richard Page has been suspended the hospital board where he has been a member for the last two decades, after making comments that same-sex parents are not suitable for children (The Telegraph)
  6. Thundering brass left me deaf, says opera musician – A viola player is suing the Royal Opera House, claiming that his position next to a thundering brass section has left him with permanent hearing loss. When Chris Goldscheider, 46, went to work on September 1, 2012, to rehearse Wagner’s Die Walkure, he had everything he wanted: a job in a top orchestra playing the instrument he loved, a family and a house. Yet that evening when he went home and switched on the television, he couldn’t hear it, he alleges (The Sunday Times)
  7. Worker falls down service shaft – A company in Derbyshire has been fined after a worker fell thirteen metres down a service riser shaft. Leicester Magistrates’ Court heard how a 36-year-old worker, who was from Romania, was dismantling falsework (a form of temporary structure) in a building that was under construction at Fletcher Development, De Montfort University, Leicester (HSE)
  8. Judge rejects councillor’s racism claim against SNP – A councillor who accused the SNP of racial discrimination after she was removed from a list of approved MSP candidates has had a legal action under employment law rejected by a tribunal judge (Herald Scotland)