Ambulance staff entitled to have overtime included in holiday pay
July 18th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A court ruling in a dispute between ambulance workers and the NHS could affect employers across all sectors when it comes to factoring overtime into holiday pay. The dispute centred on whether ambulance staff were entitled to have an average amount of their voluntary overtime pay included when calculating their holiday pay. The Employment Tribunal ruled in favour of the NHS Trust,…
Huge fines being threatened by the ICO in two landmark cases
July 16th 2019Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR gives her views on recent headline. The ICO has issued a ‘Notice of Intention’ (NOI) to fine British Airways a huge £183.39 million for GDPR infringements. It is for a breach that took place last September, in which personal data of approximately 500,000 BA customers was compromised. The ICO has also issued a NOI to fine Marriott £99 million for a cyber incident…
Worker was discriminated against because of poor language skills
July 11th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR The Employment Tribunal has ruled that a transport worker was discriminated against because of his ‘lack of command’ of the English language. Mr A Khawaja, from Pakistan, worked for Transport for London (TfL) but was overlooked for development opportunities such as training and conference calls. The office held conference calls twice a day and the team members also took part in regular…
Woman asked for massage by boss wins sexual harassment claim
June 27th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A woman who was repeatedly asked to massage her managing director has won a sexual harassment claim. Emma Woolf worked as a sales manager for thermal cooling material provider, Universal Science. When she booked a two bedroom flat for a trade show, managing director James Stratford said that he would also attend the show and share the flat. His conduct throughout the…
Probation officer unfairly dismissed after accusation of abuse
June 26th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A probation officer has won her case of unfair dismissal after being accused of developing an abusive and controlling relationship with a former offender. Julia Hyland had worked as a probation officer for the Greater Manchester Probation Service since 1998. She was given the role of senior case manager for an individual referred to only as the Service User (SU) who had…
Refuse collector awarded £20,000 after unfair dismissal
June 19th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A council worker has been awarded £20,000 and reinstated in his role after the Employment Tribunal decided he had been unfairly dismissed. The case involved Colin Hart, a refuse collector working for Glasgow City Council. He was a member of a team based at the St Rollox Depot. There was an equivalent team based at the city’s Western Depot. They generally carried…
Npower failed to make adjustments for autistic employee
June 14th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR An analyst who suffered with autism was discriminated against by Npower after it failed to make changes to his working environment to allow him to work in comfort. Tom Sherbourne began working for the energy giant in October 2017. He was positioned in an open-plan setting with a busy walkway behind him, and there were also building works going on around him.…
Pregnant worker unfairly dismissed after director’s ‘panic about HR issues’
June 10th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR An office worker was subjected to a ‘hostile, humiliating and offensive environment’ after she informed her employers that she was pregnant shortly after joining the company. Eilise Walker started working for Arco Environmental in November 2017, taking over the role of office manager. After three weeks, Walker informed her bosses that she was pregnant. Walker claimed that the company’s financial director and…
Woman with diabetes was ‘humiliated’ by her employers
June 7th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A woman who suffers from diabetes has been awarded £14,000 after being humiliated at work. Holly Carr, who had type 1 diabetes, worked as a fleet administrator at Weston Homes for two months. She told her line manager, Lauren Goodwin, and events co-ordinator Gaynor Impiazza, about her condition at a staff lunch to welcome her. She said she wouldn’t be drinking alcohol…
Latest figures show slight reduction in gender pay gap
May 28th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR The latest figures on the gender pay gap in large businesses show a slight reduction on last year. Legislation introduced in 2017 means that every employer with 250 or more employees has to publish the differences between what they pay their male and female staff in average salaries and bonuses. This is the second year that employers have been required to report…
