Employment law stories in the news – 13.10.2014 to 19.10.2014

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at a number of stories that have made headlines between 13 October 2014 and 19 October 2014.

  1. Brent Council to investigate their equality policy following tribunal defeat – A review into Brent Council’s equalities policies has been sanctioned following an employment tribunal ruling which found it guilty of racial discrimination against a former black employee (Kilburn Times)
  2. Nestle employee liable for tax on payment in lieu of benefit – A former Nestle employee’s has been ruled to be liable for the tax on a lump sum payment received in exchange for giving up membership of the organisation’s healthcare scheme (Employee Benefits)
  3. Perth and Kinross Council could face big payout after cancer sufferer’s dismissal – Perth and Kinross Council could be facing a six-figure bill after giving up its challenge against a cancer-suffering solicitor they unfairly dismissed. The local authority has agreed to pay a sum understood to be in the region of £75,000 to Valerie Gauld of Birkhill in advance of a two-day employment tribunal settlement hearing due to start in Dundee (The Courier)
  4. Former chef at top restaurant receives £30,000 payout in pay wrangle – A chef at a top Tyneside restaurant has been handed a £30,000 pay out over a salary wrangle. Steve Jobson rose through the ranks to become head chef taking home a pay packet of £45,000 (The Chronicle Live)
  5. Council to appeal legal chief ‘Hitler’ ruling –  An employment tribunal ruling that a leading figure in local government legal services made ‘inappropriate references to Hitler’ in the hearing of a solicitor from a minority ethnic background is to be contested, Essex County Council said today (The Law Society Gazette)
  6. High-flying banker nicknamed ‘Crazy Miss Cokehead’ by bullying male colleagues claiming compensation of £14million after winning employment tribunal – A high-flying banker nicknamed ‘Crazy Miss Cokehead’ during a smear campaign by her bullying male colleagues is claiming compensation of £14 million after she won her employment tribunal. Cambridge graduate Svetlana Lokhova, who worked in the London office of Russian firm Sberbank, said she was victimised before being unfairly dismissed (The Mail Online)
  7. Rotherham abuse scandal: Joyce Thacker given £40k payout – Rotherham Council’s director of children’s services was paid £40,000 to leave in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal, it has been revealed. Joyce Thacker resigned last month after weeks of pressure following the publication of the Jay Report (BBC)
  8. Theatre critic Mark Shenton loses sex discrimination case against Desmond’s Express – A leading theatre critic who claimed that he was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation by Express Newspapers has lost his case. Mark Shenton, former theatre critic for the Sunday Express, claimed that he was sacked after nude pictures of him on a gay website were sent to his employers in an act of “revenge porn” (The Independent)
  9. Equal parental leave pay for Civil Service staff – All Civil Service employees will be entitled to full parental pay from April 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will announce this week. Currently, only mothers are entitled to full pay when a couple choose to share parental leave (BBC)
  10. Firm sentenced after worker’s leg injured by chainsaw – An East Kilbride firm has been fined for safety failings after a worker was injured when a chainsaw hit him on the leg as he slipped while felling trees. Hugh Dorricot, then aged 26, was not wearing appropriate personal protective equipment and was not adequately trained to use a chainsaw when the incident took place at Gartsherrie Burn, near Gartsherrie Road, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, on 9 March 2010 (HSE)