Employment law stories in the news – 05.03.2018 to 11.03.2018

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news we take a look at ten employment law stories that made headlines between 5 March 2018 and 11 March 2018

  1. Women work for free more than two months every year due to gender pay gap, finds analysis – Women have effectively worked for free so far this year because of the gender pay gap, campaigners have said. Today has been dubbed “Women’s Pay Day”, since an 18.4 per cent wage difference means women must wait more than two months of the calendar year before they start to earn the same as men, according to new analysis (The Independent)
  2. Next facing £30m equal pay claim from shop-floor staff – Next is facing a demand for up to £30m in back pay from thousands of mainly female shop-floor staff in the first major equal pay claim against a fashion retailer (The Guardian)
  3. Met’s ‘poster girl’ in £144,000 claim for damages from police watchdog – A former Met Police firearms officer who lifted the lid on bullying and victimisation at Scotland Yard is now claiming £144,000 in damages from the police watchdog alleging it is “institutionally racist” (The Evening Standard)
  4. Sacked saleswoman told to pay Intel £45k after losing discrimination case – A former senior saleswoman at Intel who accused the firm of sex discrimination and wrongful dismissal has lost all of her claims and has been ordered to pay the company £45,000 (~$63,000) by the middle of this month (The Register)
  5. Trust failed to make reasonable adjustments to absence policy for disabled nurse –
    A former nurse was unfairly dismissed when her employer failed to make reasonable adjustments for her disability in its absence management policy, an employment tribunal has found (People Management)
  6. Wagamama fined for failing to pay the minimum wage – Restaurant chains Wagamama and TGI Fridays have each been fined an undisclosed amount for failing to pay staff the National Minimum Wage. They were among 43 employers in the hospitality sector on the government’s latest list of firms breaking the law (BBC)
  7. Employment tribunal claims rise by 90% – Claims to employment tribunals have soared by 90% since the abolition of fees, latest official figures show. The government’s latest quarterly statistics, for October to December 2017, show 8,173 single claims were brought, up from 4,200 in the same period in 2016 (The Law Society Gazette)
  8. Commerzbank Banker Sues Over Post-Pregnancy `Environment’ – A Commerzbank AG executive accused the bank of discriminating against her when she returned from pregnancy leave, saying colleagues created a “hostile environment.” (Bloomberg)
  9. Woman with cancer was fired for taking too much sick leave – A Norwich woman who was fired for taking too much sick leave while doctors fought to treat her cancer has won a landmark discrimination case (The Norwich Evening News)
  10. Company fined after worker left injured – A meat production company has today been fined for safety breaches after a worker was injured whilst adjusting storage racking (HSE)