Employment law stories in the news – 07.07.2014 to 13.07.2014

MoJIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at nine stories relating to employment law that have made the news between July 2014 and 13 July 2014

  1. Sacked surgeon wins backing of employment tribunal – An employment tribunal has ruled a top surgeon was unlawfully and wrongfully dismissed by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust over allegations of sexually harassing two junior doctors (The Banbury Guardian)
  2. Ryan settles £7mn Rowell employment tribunal – Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) has agreed a settlement in its £7mn wrongful dismissal dispute with former Jubilee Group CEO Johnny Rowell, The Insurance Insider can reveal. The undisclosed settlement was reached today (11 July) on the third day of a scheduled eight-day hearing at the London Central Employment Tribunal (Insurance Insider)
  3. PM rejects call for law change in gay cake row: Cameron declines to support ‘conscience clause’ to protect Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs – David Cameron has brushed aside calls for a ‘conscience clause’ to protect Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs. The Prime Minister yesterday dismissed the idea following the scandal over the decision by the state equality watchdog to sue a bakery firm which refused to bake a cake celebrating gay marriage (The Daily Mail)
  4. Teacher axed for confiscating phone sues for £250,000 – A “traditional” schoolmaster who says he was branded “unsafe to work with children” by a headmistress after confiscating a mobile phone from an unruly pupil is suing for £250,000. Jean Camurat says his reputation was damaged by his treatment at Aveley School in South Ockenden, Essex (The Evening Standard) – PLEASE NOTE: this case has now been decided by the High Court in favour of Thurrock Council. The full judgment can be found here (BAILII) and the article in the local paper can be found here (The Enquirer
  5. Treasury adviser ‘fired over whistleblowing’: Civil servant claims bosses removed him from his post after he revealed they ‘killed off’ a flagship proposal by Osborne – A senior Treasury adviser has claimed he was sacked after blowing the whistle when civil service bosses ‘killed off’ a flagship proposal by George Osborne. David Owen said an employment tribunal had ordered that he should be given his job back but Treasury bosses were refusing to comply (The Daily Mail)
  6. Provider ordered to pay whistleblower £80k compensation – A whistleblowing nurse has been awarded £80,000 by an employment tribunal that found she was unfairly dismissed after suffering “detriment” for making protected disclosures over patient safety concerns (HSJ)
  7. East Yorkshire firm to pay £100,000 over worker’s tragic death – A York-based specialist turf company was today (9 July) sentenced for a catalogue of safety failings that led to the death of a 30-year-old employee and father of two (HSE)
  8. Fine for car rental manager who sold customer details to claims company – A former rogue manager at a Merseyside branch of the car rental company Enterprise Rent-A-Car has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after unlawfully stealing the records of almost two thousand customers before selling them to a claims management company (Information Commisioner’s Office)
  9. Unless order requiring ‘disclosure’ insufficiently clear to justify strike-out – In Mace v Ponders End International Ltd the EAT has overturned a tribunal’s decision to strike out a claim on the basis of an unless order that required the claimant to ‘provide disclosure of all relevant documents’. It was unclear whether the employment judge intended that the claimant provide a list or copies of relevant documents (ELAweb)