Employment law stories in the news – 25.11.2019 to 01.12.2019

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 made headlines between 25 November 2019 and 1 December 2019

  1. Nursery worker was unfairly dismissed after blowing the whistle on colleague – A nursery worker who raised concerns about her colleagues’ conduct was unfairly dismissed because she had made a protected disclosure, an employment tribunal (ET) has ruled (People Management)
  2. Oxford professor launches legal fight after he was ‘forced‘ to retire aged 69 – An Oxford physicist has claimed he was unfairly forced to retire before his 70th birthday despite the fact that his research was ‘blossoming’ (Denton Daily)
  3. Richard Keogh’s appeal against sacking rejected by Derby – Richard Keogh’s appeal against his sacking by Derby has been rejected by the Championship club. Keogh’s appeal was heard at Pride Park Stadium last Wednesday and the 33-year-old defender was informed last night that the decision stands that his contract will be terminated (The Telegraph)
  4. Royal Mail whistleblower ‘unfairly dismissed’ – A Royal Mail employee was unfairly dismissed for raising concerns over alleged regulatory breaches even though the person who sacked her was unaware of the whistleblowing attempts, the Supreme Court has ruled (The Times)
  5. Supreme Court ruling in favour of Royal Mail employee extends protections for whistleblowers – The Supreme Court has today upheld a ruling in favour of a former Royal Mail employee who was dismissed from her role following an attempt to call out alleged bad practice (People Management)
  6. Laurie Dalrymple: Former Wolves managing director drops tribunal case – Former Wolves managing director Laurie Dalrymple has abandoned plans to take the club to an employment tribunal. The 44-year-old was appointed following a takeover by Fosun International in July 2016 but left his post at Molineux with immediate effect in July (BBC)
  7. EAT rails against ‘endless delays’ of interim orders – Claimants alleging mistreatment at work should be able to present their case without a succession of preliminary hearings, an employment appeal tribunal has said (Law Society Gazette)
  8. Nurse says NHS trust failed to protect him from racist attack – An NHS nurse is locked in a legal battle with his employer after being assaulted and abused by a patient who was known to be racist (The Guardian)
  9. Former aide who laid bare the sleazy world of Qatar’s London embassy reveals she wore Primark clothes and travelled by Tube, while women who slept with the Ambassador wore designer labels and drove Mercedes – Deanne Kingson got damages for eight years of sexual and religious persecution. She revealed the ambassador at the Embassy asked to marry her daughter (Daily Mail)
  10. Abuse video police officer Novlett Robyn Williams challenged ‘race bias’ – A Metropolitan Police officer who was prosecuted after she received an indecent video of a child on WhatsApp had previously challenged the force over racial bias in promotion tests (The Times)