Employment law stories in the news – 03.04.2017 to 09.04.2017

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news we examine ten employment law-related stories that have made headlines between 3 April 2017 and 9 April 2017

  1. Solicitor fined after telling colleague he had ‘lost his marbles’ – A solicitor who sent a string of abusive messages as part of a long-running dispute with a colleague has been fined £2,000. Anup Shah, senior partner at Mayfair, London, practice CVS LLP, sent a consultant at the firm three emails which made reference to his age, religion and mental state (The Law Society Gazette)
  2. Fifth of employers reject candidates due to their online activity – Organisations should be careful of rejecting prospective employees based on discriminatory factors, say legal experts. One in five employers have rejected a prospective job candidate because of something they have seen in their online activity, claims new research from the YouGov Omnibus; but organisations need to ensure they are keeping within the law (CIPD)
  3. Third of British bosses do not believe gender pay gap is business issue – Nearly a third of British companies admit they do not believe the gender pay gap is an issue despite regulations requiring companies to gather information on it coming in to force from today (The Telegraph)
  4. Temporary worker jailed for £700,000 fraud on firms – A woman who abused her position at law firms to obtain more than £700,000 through fraud has been jailed for three and a half years. Caprice Chaneele Lindo, 40, of Bradford, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison at Manchester Crown Court on Monday, Greater Manchester Police said (The Law Society Gazette)
  5. Haulage company fined after worker crushed – Bryan Alexander Ltd has been fined after one its workers was crushed by a hydraulic extension on one of its vehicles on the roadside in Plymouth. The worker suffered life changing internal injuries as a result of this incident (HSE)
  6. Supreme Court overturns Court of Appeal in Essop and Naeem cases – In Essop and ors v Home Office and Naeem v Secretary of State for Justice, the Supreme Court has given two important judgments on the scope of indirect discrimination (ELAweb)
  7. Tribunal fees ‘barrier to justice’, rights committee says – Employment tribunal fees create impunity to bosses abusing human rights, parliamentarians have said, accusing the Ministry of Justice of complacency on some of the barriers faced by people seeking access to justice (The Law Society Gazette)
  8. Essar Oil UK Limited fined after explosion at Ellesmere Port refinery – An oil company has been fined £1.65m following an explosion at its Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port. Liverpool Crown Court heard that while there were no injuries, the blast from the early hours of 14 November 2013 caused internal structures to collapse; damage totalling more than £20m (HSE)
  9. Firms face gender pay gap challenge over partners – Mandatory reporting of disparities between men’s and women’s pay could pose significant challenges for law firms with a large number of salaried partners, an employment solicitor has warned (The Law Society Gazette)
  10. MPs blast ‘gibberish’ gig economy contracts – The Work and Pensions Committee accused the companies of exploiting “gibberish” to include clauses that prevent workers from challenging them in court over holiday and pay employment rights. The firms have come under fire for insisting that their workers are “self-employed”, and thus not entitled to the same rights for sick pay and pensions as salaried employees to sick pay and pensions (PoliticsHome)