Employment law stories in the news – 08.07.2019 to 14.07.2019

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 have made headlines between 8 July 2019 and 14 July 2019

  1. Covert recording is not always misconduct, finds EAT – The Employment Appeal Tribunal has clarified when it is acceptable for an employee to make a covert recording of a meeting without it being considered misconduct. In handing down its judgment in Phoenix House v Stockman last week, the EAT said it was good practice for an employee or employer to reveal their plans to record a meeting, with it generally being considered misconduct if the person making the recording does not do so (Personnel Today)
  2. Leading lawyer ‘relentlessly bullied suicidal young employee’ – One of the UK’s leading lawyers relentlessly bullied an employee despite being aware that she was suicidal and had a history of poor mental health, a tribunal was told yesterday (The Times)
  3. Army racism tribunal: Officer ‘referred to coloured people’ – A British Army officer questioned if the n-word was racist and referred to “coloured people”, an employment tribunal has been told. Former paratrooper Hani Gue claimed Lt Col Geoff Hargreaves made the comments in an interview in 2018 after he had complained about racist language (BBC)
  4. Boss who asked female employee if he could ‘Harvey Weinstein your a**e’ ordered to pay £37,000 – The owner of an upholstery firm who pestered one of his female employees for “Harvey Weinstein style sex” has been ordered to pay her £37,000 at an employment tribunal (The Independent)
  5. Consultation includes protections from third-party sexual harassment – The government has published its consultation on plans to strengthen protections against sexual harassment at work, including harassment from third parties (Personnel Today)
  6. Former workers at Jamie Oliver’s UK restaurants sue over redundancy – Scores of former workers at celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s failed UK restaurant empire are suing for up to £1 million over an allegedly flawed redundancy process, the Evening Standard has learned (Evening Standard)
  7. Doctor sacked for refusing to refer to transgender woman as ‘she’ – A Christian doctor was sacked after saying he could not refer to “any 6ft tall bearded man as madam”, an employment tribunal has heard. Dr David Mackereth told a panel that using transgender pronouns was “a ritual denial of an obvious truth” (The Independent)
  8. Zionism row council worker was unfairly fired, says tribunal – A council worker filmed at a pro-Jeremy Corbyn demonstration saying that Zionists “collaborated” with the Nazis was wrongly sacked, an employment tribunal has ruled (Evening Standard)
  9. Judge slams ‘inept’ Southampton University after lawyers failed to turn up at discrimination tribunal because they didn’t check their emails as he awards economist £3.5million – A university ordered to pay almost £3.5million to a distinguished economist after failing to turn up at the court case has been branded an ‘embarrassment’ by a judge (Daily Mail)
  10. Ex north-east charity boss wins £15K compensation after winning unfair dismissal case – A former charity boss has been awarded more than £15,000 compensation from her ex-employer (Aberdeen Journals)