Employment law cases in the news – 16.02.2015 to 22.02.2015
In the latest of our series of posts on employment law cases in the news, we take a look at ten employment law cases that have made the news between 16 February and 22 February 2015
- High-flier’s sex discrimination claim: Lawyer ‘sacked after objecting to boss showing off his wife’s nude portrait’ – A City lawyer was sacked after she objected to a boss circulating a nude portrait of his wife to staff, a tribunal heard yesterday. Margaret Rowe, 65, claims she lost her £184,000 a year job at ‘chauvinistic’ Fidelity Worldwide Investment because she refused to act like a woman who ‘knows her place’ (The Daily Mail)
- Devon undertaker’s discriminating desire to replace staff with ‘young fit blonde’ costs firm £44,000 – A bullying undertaker’s desire to have a ‘young fit blonde’ instead of an older member of staff has cost his family run firm £44,000. Jon Christophers told his company’s former female funeral director that he was going to replace an older female member of staff with a ‘young fit blonde’ (The Exeter Express & Echo)
- Policeman ‘said London was like Planet of the Apes’: Tribunal hears of ‘racist’ slur after riots – Senior officers failed to investigate a policeman who compared an inner-city borough to ‘Planet of the Apes’ in the aftermath of the 2011 London riots, it was claimed yesterday. Black officer Derrick Quarm complained the comment by a detective was ‘overtly racist’ because it referred to the black and ethnic minority population in Lambeth, South London (The Daily Mail)
- Former Newland House School teacher claims unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination – A former teacher at Newland House School has claimed she was unfairly dismissed and subjected to sexual discrimination after allegedly calling a colleague a “batty boy” (This Is Local London)
- Care worker who denied elder abuse ‘was unfairly dismissed’ – A care assistant in a Limerick nursing home who denied striking two elderly residents has been awarded €15,000 for unfair dismissal. Denise Tchakounte was employed at The Park nursing home in Castletroy when a colleague complained on December 28, 2012 she had recently witnessed Ms Tchakounte hit two residents (Limerick Leader)
- Leeds Utd entitled to fire top exec – Leeds United was entitled to fire a senior executive for using the club’s email to send obscene and pornographic images of naked women in the shower. Gwyn Williams, 66, who was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct in July 2013, had asked the High Court to award him up to £250,000 in compensation for breach of contract (Harrowgate Advertiser)
- Firm in court after man died in roof fall – An Aberdeenshire business has been fined for serious safety failings after a man died when he fell more than five metres through a fragile roof (HSE)
- Former council officer was unfairly dismissed, employment tribunal rules – Sacked former senior Worthing Borough Council officer Cliff Harrison was unfairly dismissed, an employment judge has ruled. Mr Harrison’s dismissal followed the signing of a flawed contract with parking firm NCP, which cost the council hundreds of thousands of pounds to settle (The Worthing Herald)
- Former Aberdeen Inspire boss will take firm to employment tribunal – The sacked boss of a business organisation set up to promote Aberdeen will take her former employer to a tribunal next month. Susan Bree, who was the chief executive of Aberdeen Inspired, was fired after apparently giving her husband Alan, an operations manager, a pay rise of several thousand pounds without the approval of the board of directors (Press and Journal)
- Tata sentenced over workers’ burns in molten metal fire – Global steel giant Tata has been prosecuted after three employees suffered serious burns when tonnes of molten metal spilled onto the factory floor and ignited (HSE)