Employment law stories in the news – 27.04.2020 to 03.05.2020

In the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news, we take a look at ten employment law-related stories that made headlines between 27 April 2020 and 3 May 2020

  1. Law Commission calls for tribunal time limit extension – The Law Commission has told the government that the employment tribunal system is not working as well as it should and recommends a six-month time limit to bring any type of claim in a report published today (The Law Society Gazette)
  2. Teachers win dismissal case over SATs ‘cheating’ – Three primary school teachers who were sacked for “inflating” pupils’ SATs results have won their case at an employment tribunal (BBC)
  3. Disabled hospital secretary unfairly dismissed for repeatedly checking her own medical record, tribunal rules – A hospital clerical officer has been awarded £269,114 after she was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against for repeatedly checking her own medical files while at work (People Management)
  4. Priti Patel expected to be cleared of bullying by Cabinet Office inquiry – Priti Patel is expected to be cleared this week of bullying senior civil servants in three separate government departments, Whitehall sources have confirmed (The Guardian)
  5. Ex-DWP official who compared immigrants to terrorists loses unfair dismissal case – A former civil servant in the Department for Work and Pensions has lost a court case against her ex-employer after she was fired over a series of offensive tweets (Civil Service World)
  6. Buckland urged to extend deadline for discrimination and harassment claims – Leading justice organisations have urged the lord chancellor to temporarily double the three-month deadline for bringing discrimination or harassment claims to the employment tribunal to protect workers during the Covid-19 lockdown (The Law Society Gazette)
  7. Boots employee banned from taking breaks wins £7k at employment tribunal – A Boots employee suffering from a bad back has been awarded almost £7,000 by an employment tribunal after the company prevented her from taking breaks during the day (Personnel Today)
  8. NatWest worker hit by car on first day of work wins £4.7m from RBS over discrimination – A NatWest employee who was run over on her first day of work has won a record £4.7 million payout after the way she was treated left her needing psychiatric care (The Mirror)
  9. Firefighters take legal action over government pension ‘robbery’ – Four public services unions have taken the government to court over pension benefits. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU), supported by the prison staff union (POA), public services union PCS and general union the GMB, has filed court proceedings because they say the government is in breach of a key part of the new public service pension schemes that came into force in April 2015 (Personnel Today)
  10. Call for employment tribunals to have more power to protect workers – Employment tribunals should be given powers to make awards of up to £100,000 for breach of contract and to deal with disputes where staff are still in work, the Law Commission has recommended (The Guardian)