Employment law stories in the news this week – 03.03.2014 to 09.03.2014

MoJIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news this week, we take a look at ten employment law stories that have made the news between 3 March 2014 and 10 March 2014. This includes commentary on new Employment Tribunal rules, Harriet Harman backing the dual discrimination concept under the Equality Act, and a new controversy over banker bonuses

  1. Employers that lose at tribunals face a ‘quadruple jeopardy’ – From 6 April under the Employment Tribunals Act, when employment tribunal concludes that an employer has breached any of the worker’s rights to which the claim relates and determines that the breach has one or more aggravating feature, the tribunal may order the employer to pay a financial penalty to the secretary of state (HSJ)
  2. Harriet Harman would bring back dual discrimination concept – The Labour Party would implement the dual discrimination Regulations in the Equality Act if it returned to government, its deputy leader Harriet Harman has said. Harman made the pledge at a seminar last week launching a TUC report into older women in the workplace (Personnel Today)
  3. Former ABN Amro lawyer sues bank for racial discrimination – A former ABN Amro Group senior lawyer has brought a £300,000 case against the bank after claiming she was racially harassed and hounded out of her job (The Lawyer)
  4. Dismissed mother awarded £30,000 – A mother has been awarded over £30,000 by an employment tribunal which ruled she was unfairly dismissed for reporting an alleged rape by a work colleague at a works Christmas party (Herald Scotland)
  5. Minimum wage offenders named and shamed – Five employers who failed to pay their staff the minimum wage have been “named and shamed” by the government. It is only the second time this has been done, under new rules which came into effect last October (BBC)
  6. ‘Vendetta’ fears over Shrewsbury woman’s whistleblowing claim – A Shrewsbury businesswoman has accused the South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust of carrying out a vendetta and victimising her for making whistleblowing allegations (The Shropshire Star)
  7. New Co-op storm as board awards bosses huge pay and bonus deals – The embattled Co-operative Group, still reeling from a banking scandal and preparing to lay off up to 5,000 employees, faces a new storm over plans to pay its chief executive more than £3.5m in his first year in the job, while massively boosting the salaries and bonuses of other senior staff (The Guardian)
  8. Women’s talents woefully underused in legal profession – Talented women solicitors are still not making it as far as the boardroom in their legal careers despite representing almost half of the entire profession. As International Women’s Day approaches, chair of the Law Society’s Equality and Diversity Committee, Lucy Scott Moncrieff, said the profession must look past the statistics and establish why women aren’t doing as well as their male colleagues (Politics Home)
  9. Large fine for heating firm after worker crushed to death – A Wednesbury-based heating, ventilation and air conditioning manufacturer has been fined £150,000 after a worker was crushed to death while working in its warehouse (HSE)
  10. Bonus row flares as Barclays boss pockets £5m – Barclays is set to stoke the controversy over bankers’ pay as it prepares to hand a share award of almost £5m to its chief executive. Antony Jenkins will land the giant payout next week, just days after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney fleshes out plans to tighten bonus rules in the City (The Sunday Times)