Employment law stories in the news – 28.10.2019 to 3.11.29

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 28 October 2019 to 3 November 2019

  1. Shop worker lied about sexuality to bosses who only hire women and gay men – A handbag shop worker lied about his sexuality because his bosses “only wanted to employ women and gay men”. Daniel Hart told a tribunal he was asked by a manager to tell boss Linda Zhang he was gay as she would be “unable to understand” he was bisexual (Daily Star)
  2. Operations manager ordered to pay compensation following alleged racist remark – The Leeds employment tribunal (ET) has ordered a manager to pay over £2,600 to two staff members after he was found to have made an allegedly racist comment in the workplace (People Management)
  3. BBC leak reveals names of 120 women in equal pay dispute – The BBC has been accused of a potentially major data breach after the names of 120 female employees who had pursued equal pay complaints against the broadcaster were inadvertently revealed during presenter Samira Ahmed’s employment tribunal case (City AM)
  4. Jared O’Mara: Sheffield MP calls ex-staff ‘ableist’, tribunal hears – MP Jared O’Mara has called a former employee “ableist” after she accused him of using ill health to avoid dealing with issues. An employment tribunal heard Margaret Flude claim the Sheffield Hallam MP used illness as an “easy excuse” (BBC)
  5. Government considering making employee references mandatory – The government has said it will consult on the idea that employers should be required to provide, as a minimum, a basic reference – for example, confirming that they worked for that employer and the dates of their employment – for any former employee (Personnel Today)
  6. Flight attendant was discriminated against following brain tumour, tribunal rules – A flight attendant was discriminated against after her employer failed to reassign her to a ground-based role that would have accommodated her disability following a brain tumour, a tribunal has found (People Management)
  7. Government downplays tribunal NDA fears – The government has downplayed fears that the employment tribunal system has become too onerous for litigants in person with complex discrimination claims (The Law Society Gazette)
  8. Surgeon who left patient on the table loses race discrimination case – A ruling which saw a whistleblowing surgeon lose his case for discrimination has revealed the extent of medical infighting at the “increasingly dysfunctional” ENT department within one of the country’s most troubled trusts (HSJ)
  9. Radio 4’s Samira Ahmed takes BBC to pay tribunal for valuing her at one-sixth of Jeremy Vine – BBC presenter Samira Ahmed has questioned why she was paid considerably less than a high-profile male colleague in “a very similar job” on the eve of her employment tribunal over claims of unequal pay (The Telegraph)
  10. Filipino staff forced to climb pylons in rain by racist bosses win £42,000 pay-out – Racist bosses forced Filipino staff to climb pylons in the rain while British colleagues stayed in the dry. Workers who complained were told to “shut their mouths” or be “sent back to the Philippines”, an employment tribunal heard (The Mirror)