April 2012 Archives

A round-up of links to news items on employment tribunal rulings in the week beginning 23 April 2012, including a finding by an employment judge that there was no merit in a religion or belief discrimination claim against British Airways brought by a male cabin crew member on the basis that a female colleague called him "darling".

Male air steward sues British Airways because colleague called him "darling" (on the Daily Telegraph website) A religion or belief discrimination claim against British Airways by a male cabin crew member on the basis that a female colleague called him "darling" has been found to have no merit by an employment judge.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 23 April 2012, a week in which the major talking point has been the first two decisions from the Supreme Court on age discrimination in Seldon v Clarkson Wright and Jakes and Homer v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.

A round-up of links to news items on employment tribunal rulings in the week beginning 16 April 2012, including a bus driver awarded £16,700 after he was found to have been unfairly dismissed for a crash that was caused by a stuck throttle.

Dundee bus crash driver wins £16,700 claim for unfair dismissal (on the Courier website) A former bus driver who crashed into a parked car in the city centre says he feels vindicated after an employment tribunal ruled he was unfairly dismissed by National Express Dundee.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 16 April 2012, including two contrasting employment tribunal decisions in McGraw v London Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Williams v Ystrad Mynach College on "discrimination arising from disability", a new concept introduced by the Equality Act 2010 on 1 October 2010.

A round-up of links to news items on employment tribunal rulings in the week beginning 9 April 2012, including an order from an employment tribunal for car dealership Pendragon to pay £35,000 over non-payment of the national minimum wage after an HMRC investigation.

Car giants lose out in wage row (on the Hucknall Dispatch website) A car-dealership network with its headquarters in Annesley must fork out more than £35,000 after failing to meet the national minimum wage for a group of its employees.

Photo: TaxFix.co.uk

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 9 April 2012, including the Employment Appeal Tribunal decision in Ajayi and another v Aitch Care Homes (London) Ltd EAT/0464/11 (Microsoft Word document, 58K) (on the EAT website) that two employees who were dismissed after being found sleeping on duty were not automatically unfairly dismissed, despite their protests that they were exercising their right to a rest break at the time and refusing by conduct to accept their employer's failure to provide rest breaks. Their refusal to accept a contravention of the Working Time Regulations 1998 should have been communicated in advance to the employer.

A round-up of links to news items on employment tribunal rulings in the week beginning 2 April 2012, including a police detective with progressive hearing loss who successfully argued that Warwickshire Police discriminated against her by not doing more to help her with the disability.

Detective wins disability discrimination claim against Warwickshire Police (on the Coventry Telegraph website) A female detective has won a compensation claim for disability discrimination against Warwickshire Police.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 2 April 2012, including the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Associated British Ports v Bridgeman EAT/0425/11 (on the BAILII website), a case involving pilots' rest breaks and rest periods, asking the European Court of Justice about the derogation from the Working Time Directive for "activities involving the need for continuity of service or production".

A number of important employment law changes that affect employment tribunals are introduced on 6 April 2012. Here's a recap of the 6 April amendments, which include the increase in the qualifying service needed to claim unfair dismissal from one year to two years. We have explained the 6 April 2012 employment law changes in this week's XpertHR weekly podcast and presented the pros and cons of each change to employment tribunal procedure.

Unfair dismissal qualifying period increases The qualifying period for employees to claim unfair dismissal (and have the right to written reasons for dismissal) increases from one to two years on 6 April 2012. The increase applies only to employees whose employment with their employer begins on or after 6 April. The one-year qualifying period will continue to apply to employees who started with their employer prior to that date.

• Qualifying periods for statutory rights
• Does an employer have to give a written statement of reasons for dismissal?

The Ministry of Justice has published statistics on the Tribunals Service's caseload for the three months to 31 December 2011 (PDF format, 127K) (on its website), including numbers on employment tribunal claims.

From July to September 2011, employment tribunals received 56,000 cases, a 40% increase in overall claims to employment tribunals, compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The number of single claims (25,200) remained static, while the number of multiple claims went up by 65% and was affected by the number of resubmitted airline cases received in October to December 2011.

Between 1 October and 31 December 2011, 27,800 jurisdictional claims were disposed of, an 8% increase in the number disposed of in the same period of the previous year). However, the number of single claims disposed of fell by 2%.

There were increases in the number of claims received for:

• failure to inform and consult on redundancy (from 1,300 to 2,200);
• unfair dismissal (from 11,600 to 12,400) and;
• less favourable treatment of part-time workers (from 130 to 260).

There was a notable decease in age discrimination claims, from 2,900 to 1,100.

A round-up of links to news items on employment tribunal rulings in the week beginning 26 March 2012, including an employment tribunal decision that a Heathrow baggage handler was fairly dismissed by British Airways over fears that he was being groomed for a terror plot.

Heathrow man's "terror plot" sacking upheld (on the This Is London website) A Heathrow baggage handler sacked by British Airways over fears he was being groomed for a terror plot was rightly dismissed, an employment tribunal has ruled.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 26 March 2012, including an employment tribunal claim in which a senior doctor is claiming that a hospital dismissed him for being a whistleblower.