April has been a month that has brought us sunshine, rain and wind but alongside all of this there has also been some very important employment law cases in our courts.
Whilst participating in an equality and diversity training course a cleaner won a claim for racial harassment after being subject to racial slurs which caused deep offence.
The Cardiff Employment Tribunal ruled in favour of the cleaner after it found her employer guilty of holding a course where racial words were used enough to amount to racial harassment. The cleaner alleged that the person who was in charge of the course used and wrote the ‘N-word’ on multiple occasions and it was then repeated by numerous colleagues.
A charity employee lost a £300,000 compensation claim that she filed for injuries to her back after she was lifted up and then dropped at a Christmas party. The High Court ruled that a pay out in such circumstances would indicate that ‘health and safety has gone mad’.
Sandra Shelbourne who was an employee for Cancer Research UK filed the claim after suing the company due to suffering ‘devastating’ back injuries that she claims came from being ‘manhandled’ at a work Christmas party back in 2012.
The judge presiding over the case stated that the scientist who dropped Sandra should himself be liable, however as he was not being sued, no compensation could be awarded.
An employee that suffered from type 1 diabetes was left feeling ‘intimidated, under the spotlight and concerned for her job’ has been awarded compensation of £14,000 for disability discrimination and harassment.
The Employment Tribunal at East London Hearing Centre found that from the start of her employment at Weston Homes, Holly Carr was ‘humiliated’ and ‘highly embarrassed’ as a result of the treatment she received surrounding her disability. When Carr first started she was taken around the office and introduced to everyone as a ‘diabetic’ and also was told not to report an incident of low blood sugar to any colleagues or else she would be ‘sacked’.
After the hearing, Weston Homes stated that they were extremely disappointed by the finding and totally rejected the allegations.
One of the largest energy providers in the UK was ordered to pay an employee £230,000 after they were judged to have unfairly dismissed him due to a poor HR process.
The energy firm in question was Scottish and South Energy (SSE) and they stated that David Nutt was laid off due to a breakdown in trust and confidence. This was due to Nutt filing a grievance after he raised concerns over health and safety issues. However, after the tribunal the judge stated that Nutt was sacked due to poor management and a lack of knowledge surrounding what to do with him.
An office administrator whose male replacement was being paid £3,500 more than her whilst fulfilling the same role was discriminated against by her employee under the equal pay law.
The worker in question had worked at Alternative Care in Wakefield for almost two years before she handed her notice in, leaving the company with a salary of £18,000. However once the company decided to replace Ms Broom they offered the job to her partner, a male, and offered him a salary of £21,500 which is significantly higher than the salary that she was earning whilst in that role.
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