Employment law cases in the news – 20.03.2017 to 26.03.2017

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law cases in the news, we take a look at ten employment law-related cases that made headlines between 20 March 2017 and 26 March 2017

  1. Employment tribunal win for former staff of failed coach firm -Former employees of a North Wales coach company who lost their jobs when it collapsed have won their claims for protective awards following its failure to properly consult. More than 300 people were made redundant when Wrexham-based GHA Coaches ceased trading in mid-July 2016 (The Business Desk)
  2. Recycling company fined after worker crushed – Arrow Recycling Ltd has been fined after a worker was left fighting for his life after being crushed by about 400kg of cardboard. Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court heard how Parvez Ahmed, 49, had been working on the recycling site in Smethwick, West Midlands on 22 April 2016 when he was crushed under bale stacks of falling cardboard (HSE)
  3. Tribunal tells Stroke Association to pay nearly £13k damages to former employee – An employment appeal tribunal in Liverpool rules that the dismissal of office worker Lindsey Unsworth was discriminatory; she had been off sick with a disabling knee condition for more than three years (The Third Sector)
  4. Wrongful dismissal of woman sees Walsall firm ordered to pay costs – A judge has told a Walsall firm to pay a Bulgarian mother of two more than £5,000 after complaining she was “forgotten” during a takeover whilst on maternity leave. Legal claims for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination were made by Mrs Zornitsa Semerdzhieva against Personnel Services Ltd of Bradford Street, Walsall at Birmingham Employment Tribunal (The Walsall Advertiser)
  5. b – An employment tribunal has ruled that a self-employed courier for the firm Excel was actually “a worker”. Cycle courier Andrew Boxer argued he was entitled to one week of holiday pay based on his work for Excel (BBC)
  6. Driver wins unfair dismissal case against Dumbarton bus firm but faces tax nightmare – A bus driver has been awarded nearly £7000 after winning an unfair dismissal case against Dumbarton bus firm McColl’s Travel. But Steven Glover, from Renton, is facing a financial nightmare after a tax blackhole caused by years of incorrect salary deductions was uncovered (The Daily Record)
  7. Female engineer told to be ‘nicer’ because she was a woman by construction firm boss – An engineer suing over sex discrimination by a Sellafield contractor was told to be gentler, kinder and nicer because she is a woman, a tribunal heard. Susan Tudor says she was forced out of a job at the nuclear plant, where she was the “only woman in a man’s world”, in 2014 (The Times & Star)
  8. London cycle courier ‘was punished for refusing work after eight hours in cold’ – A courier delivering parcels in central London has described being punished for refusing work after eight hours of cycling in snowy weather, saying he received no paid breaks or holiday pay (The Guardian)
  9. Joanne Batham awarded £17,500 in sex discrimination hearing against Wycombe-based Safesksy Ltd MD Richard Barber – An airfield worker dubbed “the witch up North” by her High Wycombe-based boss has won her case for sex discrimination at an industrial tribunal (Bucks Free Press)
  10. Laing O’Rourke fined £800,000 after worker fatally crushed at Heathrow Airport – A construction firm has been sentenced following the death of Philip Griffiths at Heathrow Airport in October 2014. Southwark Crown Court heard that Philip’s brother Paul accidentally reversed into his 38-year-old sibling when the pair were trying to move a broken down scissor lift on a service road, while working for Laing O’Rourke (HSE)