Employment law stories in the news – 20.06.2016 to 26.06.2016

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at eight employment law stories that have made the news between 20 June and 26 June 2016

  1. Supreme Court: give tribunals power to award compensation for modern slavery – Remedies under the Modern Slavery Act should be extended to allow employment tribunals to award compensation to the victims of slavery, a Supreme Court judge has said in Taiwo v Olaigbe and another; Onu v Akwiwu and another (Personnel Today)
  2. Employment tribunal decisions to go online – HM Courts and Tribunals Service has announced that it plans to introduce a new online database of employment tribunal decisions in Autumn 2016. In a letter handed to users of the employment tribunal judgment register office at Bury St Edmunds, HMCTS states that the new database will be available to all to search on the internet (ELAweb)
  3. RBS bank sheds another 900 jobs in cost-cutting drive – Royal Bank of Scotland is cutting another 900 jobs as part of plans to reduce costs by £800m this year. The lender, majority owned by the UK government, has axed more than 2,500 jobs since January (BBC)
  4. Union urges M&S to open talks about pay and pension changes – The shopworkers’ union has urged Marks & Spencer to open talks as long-serving staff have been told new contract terms will be imposed if they do not voluntarily sign up to pay and pension changes that could leave them thousands of pounds out of pocket (The Guardian)
  5. My Local retailer faces administration after Morrisons sale – The owner of the My Local convenience stores chain, sold by Morrisons last September, may put the retailer into administration. The Usdaw union said Greybull Capital has lined up accountancy firm KPMG to be administrator for the 120-store business, which employs 1,650 people (BBC)
  6. Justice Committee: tribunal fees have had unacceptable impact on access to justice – The House of Commons Justice Committee has published a report following its inquiry into how, among other things, the introduction of fees for bringing cases before employment tribunals has affected access to justice (ELAweb)
  7. Fish processing firm fined after man killed by falling boxes – A Plymouth company has been fined £500,000 after an employee suffered fatal injuries when a stack of boxes of frozen fish fell on him. Tomas Suchy, 22, an employee of Interfish Limited, was helping to clear up a fallen stack of frozen fish boxes in one of the cold store areas when there was another fall of stock which struck him. He received multiple and severe injuries which proved fatal (HSE)
  8. Scottish universities hit by strike action over pay – Staff at five universities have started strike action as a dispute with employers over pay becomes “increasingly bitter”. Mary Senior, of the University and College Union (UCU), said a quarter of Scotland’s universities would be affected by the action (Scotsman)
  9. MPs call for ‘substantial’ cut in employment tribunal fees – The introduction of employment tribunal fees has had a ‘significant adverse impact’ on access to justice for meritorious claims, a group of MPs said today (The Law Society Gazette)
  10. Let workers self-certify illness for 14 days, say GPs – Workers should be able to self-certify sickness for up to two weeks to help reduce the number of unnecessary GP appointments, doctors say. People need a doctor’s note if they are off for more than a week, but GPs said people should be trusted more and it could reduce the growing burden on GPs (BBC)