Employment law stories in the news – 26.08.2016 to 04.09.2016

redmans-blog-newsIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law cases in the news, we take a look at eight employment law cases that have made headlines between 26 August 2016 and 4 September 2016:

  1. ‘Bureaucratic’ gateway blocks access to discrimination advice – The process for obtaining state-funded legal help in discrimination cases is too bureaucratic, practitioners have told the Gazette, after MPs demanded urgent action to end a ‘shocking’ increase in workplace pregnancy discrimination (The Law Society Gazette)
  2. Manufacturing firm fined after worker’s arm injured in roller – A Wirral based company has been fined £170,000 after a worker’s arm was injured in machinery. Warwick Crown Court heard how an installation engineer of Sovex Limited suffered a broken arm when it was pulled into machinery at the UK Mail site in Coventry, where he was commissioning a new conveyor belt system (HSE)
  3. Worker claims racial discrimination led to his exit from Union post – The head of Scotland’s Trade Union Congress (STUC) has denied racially discriminating against a worker and threatening him with the sack when he raised a tribunal against the body (Herald Scotland)
  4. Maternity rights must cover casual staff too, say MPs after ‘shocking’ increase in discrimination against pregnant women and new mums in the past decade – Urgent action is needed to give pregnant women and new mothers more protection at work, MPs said last night. Following a ‘shocking’ increase in discrimination over the past ten years, they called for firms to be banned from making women redundant when they are on maternity leave (The Daily Mail)
  5. Forthcoming tribunal decisions database increases risk of reputational damage – Ascertaining the claims record of a particular employer and obtaining copies of any judgments requires quite a lot of effort at the moment. But a searchable online database of employment tribunal decisions will become available to the public from autumn 2016, according to the government’s courts and tribunals service (CIPD)
  6. Ban businesses from sacking new mums, say MPs – “Urgent action” is needed to give pregnant women and new mothers more protection at work after a “shocking” increase in discrimination, MPs say. The Women and Equalities Committee is calling for a German-style system, where it is harder to make women redundant during and after pregnancy (BBC)
  7. Deaf workers: one in four has quit a job because of discrimination – One in four workers with hearing loss has been forced to quit a job because of discrimination, according to a survey by totaljobs. The job board’s research found that, although there are more than 11 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss, the majority of deaf employees have experienced discrimination in the workplace (Personnel Today)
  8. Construction firm in court after worker fractures spine in roof fall – Construction firm Montway Ltd has been fined £144,000 after a worker was seriously injured when he fell off a roof during demolition work. Southwark Crown Court heard that on 25 February 2013 two workers were working on the roof of a two storey detached house at 17 Basing Hill, Golders Green in London (HSE)