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…
New measures being planned to ensure SMEs are paid on time
July 15th 2019By Carly Davies Credit Control & Debt Recovery The government is planning to ease the cash flow burden on small firms by making the boards of large companies accountable for late payments to suppliers. It is part of an ongoing effort to tackle the issue of late payment, which can be the difference between success and failure for many SMEs. Large companies could also face fines and have binding payment…
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…
Court ruling enables company to remove estranged director
July 8th 2019By Mark Aspin Director A High Court ruling has enabled a company to remove a director who had become estranged from the business following a dispute over alleged breach of duties. The company had two members and four directors. Three of the directors, including the majority shareholder, believed that the fourth director, Mr Christopher Stephen Jones, who was the minority shareholder, had acted in serious breach of his duties. In…
Estate agent not signed up to redress scheme fined £3,000
July 1st 2019By Laura Bright Solicitor An estate agent has been fined £3,000 for not being a member of all the required redress schemes for the services it covered. The case arose following a complaint from a tenant who lived in a block of flats managed by the agent. The local authority discovered the agent was a member of a redress scheme for its letting work but not for property management work.…
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.…
House prices show slight annual rise despite monthly fall
June 13th 2019By Linsey Hayes Conveyancer House prices rose slightly over the year to March, but there was a fall in the latest monthly figures. The UK House Price Index shows that prices fell by an average of 0.2% between February and March. However, there was an annual rise of 1.4%. The average house in the UK is now valued at £226,798. In England, the March data shows a fall of 0.5%…
