Employment law stories in the news this week – 28.04.2014 to 04.05.2014

MoJIn the latest of our series of posts on employment law stories in the news this week, we take a look at ten cases related to employment law that have made the news between 28.04.2014 and 04.05.2014

  1. Police officer forced to retire wins disability discrimination case – A police officer who was forced to retire following an injury has won £230,215 in compensation. Mr Horler, who worked for the South Wales Police Service, brought a disability discrimination claim against his employer after it failed to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate his condition (Personnel Today)
  2. Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital RAF nurse wins £560,000 in sex discrimination case – An RAF nurse who treated wounded soldiers at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been awarded £560,000 after suing the Ministry of Defence for sex discrimination. Group Captain Wendy Williams, 54, took the MoD to an employment tribunal after accusing the air force of favouring men instead of women for promotion (The Birmingham Mail)
  3. Minister hails 80pc fall in employment tribunals – Tens of thousands of dishonest workers have been “squeezing the life” out of businesses with bogus employment tribunal claims for discrimination and harassment, the enterprise minister says (The Telegraph)
  4. Hampshire police officers sacked for sexism and homophobia – Three police officers have been sacked for ”deeply offensive” sexism and homophobia, following a disciplinary hearing. Det Sgt Mark Hall, Det Con Andy Holt, and Pc Colin Campbell were dismissed by Hampshire Constabulary after it received complaints from colleagues of ”bullying and inappropriate behaviour (The Daily Echo)
  5. Employment Tribunal decides employee’s termination was connected to manager’s office affair – In the case Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd v Mak, the Employment Appeal Tribunal had to consider whether a tribunal had applied the wrong test when deciding if the reason for a dismissal was redundancy (CIPD)
  6. NHS faces £20m bill for sacked doctor Raj Mattu – The NHS could face its largest tribunal payout, and total costs of up to £20 million, over the suspension and sacking of a whistleblowing doctor (The Telegraph)
  7. Acas backs effort to cut employer tribunals – Dispute mediator Acas is expected to announce an overwhelmingly strong reception to a scheme intended to reduce the number of claims against employers that are taken to a tribunal hearing (The Telegraph)
  8. Health gagging orders face tough scrutiny by ministers – A total of 697 such documents were signed in the past five years and accountability campaigners welcomed the move by ministers as helping to remove the culture of fear surrounding them. The move follows the furious row over gagging clauses in severance agreements between health boards and workers about to leave employment, often after a dispute. Health boards have denied misusing the agreements (Herald Scotland)
  9. Farce as councils spend £24million making thousands of staff redundant – only to re-hire them just weeks later – Local councils have been slammed for handing out £24milllion in redundancy payouts – only to re-employ the same staff weeks later. Figures show nearly 2,000 workers have been made redundant and then re-employed again by local authorities in the last four years(The Daily Mail)
  10. Council is ‘stalling’ on equal pay settlements – Birmingham City Council has been accused of stalling after it emerged that thousands of former and current staff could be waiting until November 2015 for equal pay settlements (The Birmingham Post)