Employment stories in the news – 01.09.2014 to 07.09.2014

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment stories in the news this week, we take a look at ten stories relating to employment law that have made the news between 1 September and 7 September 2014.

  1. Enfield firm in court after faking safety record – A North London meat wholesalers has been sentenced for operating a fault-ridden forklift truck and trying to deceive safety inspectors by forging a positive examination report on the vehicle (HSE)
  2. Lib Dems to pledge longer paternity leave in manifesto – The Liberal Democrats will pledge to give fathers an extra four weeks’ paternity leave in their manifesto for the general election. The allowance will be extended from two to six weeks, under the Lib Dem proposals (BBC)
  3. Droitwich manager claims unfair dismissal over claims of leaking information to competitor – A Droitwich manager complained he was unfairly dismissed after denying he revealed confidential information about a £3 million contract to a potential coach and bus competitor (The Bromsgrove Advertiser)
  4. £4.5m redundancy payments at Walsall Council – A total of 230 former employees at the local authority received the cash – and they got over a million more than was given to staff in the previous year – despite fewer workers taking redundancy (The Express and Star)
  5. Care worker’s constructive dismissal claim thrown out – A former manager at a care provider for the elderly has had her constructive dismissal claim thrown out, despite the company admitting she “cared too much” about her job (The Daily Echo)
  6. Plymouth roofing firm fined for worker’s life threatening injuries – A roofer nearly died after falling whilst working on the ridge of part of a roof where there was no protection to prevent a fall. James Hopkin (29) from Plymouth, was working on the pitched roof of a mid-terraced house in Torpoint on 18 April 2013 when he fell down onto the rear tenement roof and landed in a neighbouring courtyard suffering severe head injuries (HSE)
  7. Top gun cop Carol Howard secures £37,000 payout from Met in race discrimination case – Scotland Yard was today branded “malicious” and “vindictive” in its treatment of a black woman firearms officer after she was awarded £37,000 in a race discrimination claim (The Evening Standard)
  8. Buckingham Palace official appears in court charged with accepting £100,000 in bribes for awarding royal contracts – A top Buckingham Palace official appeared court today accused of receiving more than £100,000 in bribes in return for awarding contracts for work at royal palaces. Ron Harper, 62, was deputy property manager at the Royal Household from 1994 until his suspension in 2012 (The Daily Mail)
  9. Female West Midlands Police officer sexually harassed in cop love triangle – The West Midlands Police officer was targetted by her jilted ex-boyfriend – a serving sergeant – when she started seeing another colleague in 2011. When her besotted former partner found out about the new relationship he began to bombard her with messages and even asking her to marry him in a text (The Express and Star)
  10. Bonuses ploy saves bankers £50m in tax: Payments deferred until after 50p top band had been dropped – Bankers and finance workers sidestepped about £50million in tax by deferring their bumper bonuses until after the 50p tax rate had been axed, new figures suggest. Bonuses for City workers rose to £15billion between April 2013 and March 2014 – a 14 per cent rise on the previous year and an increase of £1.8billion (The Daily Mail)