Employment law stories in the news – 20.09.2021 to 26.09.2021

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 20 September 2021 and 26 September 2021.

  • Hospitality staff set to keep all their tips under rule change – Restaurant, café and pub bosses are set to be banned from keeping tips left for staff by customers in Britain. The government plans to make it illegal for hospitality firms to withhold tips from workers, who often rely on them to top up their income (BBC)
  • Bankers told by judge it’s not okay to call women ‘birds’ – An investment banker won a sex discrimination claim after her boss repeatedly called women ‘birds’ in front of her. A judge ruled in an employment tribunal that the term is ‘plainly sexist’ even if used as a joke (Metro)
  • Solicitor claims discrimination against SRA over epic 15-year dispute – An employment tribunal has struck out most elements of an extraordinary discrimination case brought by a solicitor against the SRA (The Law Society Gazette)
  • New law will give workers the right to request to work from home from day one – Workers will be able to request the right to avoid the office from their first day on the job under reforms to be announced on Thursday (The Mirror)
  • Lidl security guard wins racism claim after boss calls him ‘Blacky Chan’ – A supermarket security guard who was nicknamed ‘Blacky Chan’ at work has won a race claim despite his boss trying to argue it was ‘just banter.’ (Metro)
  • Failed pupillage applicant drops discrimination claim against chambers – A job applicant who was suing a barristers chambers after failing to secure pupillage – on the basis that the chambers had already acted against him in another claim he was pursuing – has dropped the claim (The Law Society Gazette)
  • Scottish Fire and Rescue Service discriminated against Covid-19 shielders by forcing them to use holidays – The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) forced staff who had to shield during the Covid-19 pandemic to use holidays and lieu time while they were off, a tribunal has heard (Herald Scotland)
  • Credit Suisse fined for firing bankers without proper consultation – Credit Suisse has been fined by an employment tribunal for a significant and repeated breach of workers’ rights after it sacked dozens of bankers during the pandemic (The Telegraph)
  • Sellafield ‘whistleblower’ Alison McDermott in post-tribunal appeal – A consultant who claims she was let go from Sellafield for exposing failures to deal with bullying is appealing against her employment tribunal loss. Alison McDermott said her contract at the nuclear processing plant ended after she wrote a “whistleblowing” report about bullying and harassment (BBC)
  • Met Police whistleblower ‘victim-blamed’ after exposing ‘sexist’ WhatsApp chat -Derogatory messages calling women ‘slags’ were among the many offensive messages sent in a group-chat of Met officers, a whistleblower has claimed (My London)