B.I.E.Blogging In England

A woman is suing Rolls Royce for sex discrimination and unfair dismissal after claiming that her life was made a misery by two male colleagues.

More details here

Orla Phelan, who worked as a project engineer for the company, was the only female in her team and claimed there had been a “sexist and macho” culture at work. She told an employment tribunal that she was excluded from meetings and was the subject of “puerile and lewd” comments by the two men. She said that she subsequently suffered severe depression and was sacked when she refused to return to the team where she had suffered the harassment.

She is seeking damages of over £135,000 from Rolls Royce for lost earnings and injury to her feelings. She said that, though she raised grievances about two members of staff in particular, the company treated her complaint “with contempt” and she suffered “blatant victimisation” after lodging a claim with an employment tribunal while she still worked for the company.

Rolls Royce says that Miss Phelan’s claims of harassment, sex discrimination and unfair dismissal are groundless and that it will vigorously defence the case, which continues.

An employment tribunal has ruled that 24,000 former employees of Woolworths should receive a share of £67.8m in compensation.

The tribunal ruled that the administrator, who was called in by the former store giant in 2009, failed to consult with the shopworkers’ union Usdaw before making staff redundant, therefore the staff are eligible to receive compensation, which works out at an average payout of £2,800 per worker. The money will be paid out by the government’s Redundancy Payments Office.

However, Usdaw is angry that about 3,000 former workers will miss out on a payout, on a legal technicality, because they worked in stores with less than 20 employees. John Hannett, Usdaw’s general secretary, said it was a clear injustice and the union is considering an appeal.