Employment law stories in the news – 15.07.2019 to 21.07.2019

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 15 July 2019 and 21 July 2019

  1. Ban the use of controversial gagging orders to silence whistleblowers, MPs demand – The use of non-disclosure agreements to silence whistleblowers must be banned, a cross party group of MPs have demanded (The Telegraph)
  2. West Midlands company fined after worker killed by forklift truck – A Birmingham manufacturer of calcium carbonate products has today been sentenced after a worker suffered fatal injuries when struck by a forklift truck (HSE)
  3. Landmark pension ruling to apply to all UK public sector schemes – A landmark court ruling that changes made to firefighters’ pensions in 2015 were discriminatory will apply to millions of members of public sector schemes, the government has confirmed (The Financial Times)
  4. New protections for millions of vulnerable workers – The government has announced its latest measures to advance the ‘Good work plan’, the largest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation (Gov.uk)
  5. Council employee unfairly dismissed after video of potentially offensive remarks went viral – A council worker who was filmed making potentially offensive comments about Jews during a political rally was unfairly dismissed, an employment tribunal (ET) has ruled (People Management)
  6. Crack down on misuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements in the workplace – New legislation will tackle the misuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), also known as confidentiality clauses, in the workplace – including those being used to cover up sexual harassment, racial discrimination and assault (Gov.uk)
  7. Two million workers could become eligible for statutory sick pay – Two million low-paid workers could receive statutory sick pay for the first time. Currently, employees must earn at least the equivalent of 14 hours on the minimum wage to qualify. But the government is looking at whether to extend eligibility to those earning below this threshold (BBC)
  8. Christian doctor who refused to call ‘6ft bearded man’ madam says ‘calling me a bigot is a badge of honour’ – The Christian doctor who refused to identify patients by their preferred gender said that being called a ‘bigot’ was a ‘compliment’. Dr David Mackereth, 56, is taking the Government to a tribunal after he was sacked for not using transgender pronouns (The Sun)
  9. Supermarket worker wins harassment claims after sexual remarks from colleague – A supermarket sales assistant suffered sexual harassment when colleague at the store she worked at made explicit sexual remarks towards her while on the job (People Management)
  10. Company fined after worker crushed by roller – Former manufacturing company Betafence Ltd was sentenced for safety breaches after worker was crushed by a wire drawing roller (HSE)