All employment tribunal cases are serious matters. The vast majority involve redundancy, disability and discrimination on the grounds of race or gender – and all are life-changing issues for those involved. But some cases grab attention for their outlandish qualities. These result in tribunal rulings that headline writers love and people like to read because the stories they tell are far more compelling than the technical legalistic arguments that characterise many cases. From pranks involving tarantulas to having Victoria Wood’s “Let’s Do It” being sung at employees, here are eight of the more bizarre and unusual employment tribunal cases from 2023 – so far.
‘Christine Lagarde nickname not discrimination’
The comparison with Lagarde, who like the claimant is French and has grey hair, was ‘rather silly’”
In January, we reported on a case in which a woman who complained that colleagues nicknamed her ‘Christine Lagarde’ lost an age and sex discrimination case against Deutsche Bank. An employment tribunal in London heard that Ms Maugers, who was made redundant from the investment bank in 2020, felt there was a “culture of discrimination against older women”.
However, the tribunal found that her dismissal had been fair and the company had not acted in a discriminatory way. Employment Judge Bernice Elgot said the comparison with the president of the European Central Bank, who like the claimant is French and has grey hair, was “rather silly and probably annoying”, but was not offensive or indicative of a culture of discrimination against older women.
“It is part of the irritation of day-to-day office life which occasionally occurs. The claimant pursued no formal complaint or grievance about it.” the judge said.
Women’s toilet located next to men’s urinals
The loo was a cubicle within the men’s toilets”
February brought a very unusual employment tribunal case in which a council had discriminated against women by providing ‘inadequate’ toilet facilities – namely a cubicle within the men’s toilets. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) dismissed an appeal from Earl Shilton Town Council, finding that providing toilet facilities that lacked sanitary bins and required women to walk past men using the urinals had been discriminatory on the grounds of sex.
In 2019, an employment tribunal heard that Ms Miller, an office clerk at the Leicestershire town council, worked in a building that did not have female toilet facilities she could access when needed. The council operates from a building owned by a church and shares this building with a playgroup.
The women’s toilets were in the part of the building used by the playgroup, so if Miller and other female council employees needed to use them, they had to ask playgroup staff to check that no children were using them. It was not always easy to attract the playgroup workers’ attention, which made this arrangement unsuitable if she needed to use the toilet urgently.
Lewd song saw firm partner fined £45k
The female colleague urged him to ‘say something outrageous”
In May, we reported on how a partner at a law firm had been forced to pay £45,000 in fines after singing a lewd song to a junior colleague. The female employee had joined the firm just three months before the incident, which took place at its Christmas party in 2017.
She told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that the male partner – who can also not be identified as he submitted an anonymity order on grounds of his health – had sung that her “vagina is lovely”. The tribunal heard that the partner had sung the song after the female colleague, referred to at the hearing as Person A, urged him to “say something outrageous”.
The partner also moved his fist upwards at the start of the song, cupping his right hand and moving it in front of his genitals. The colleague was “shocked and humiliated” by his actions and the song.
English nationalism ‘not a philosophical belief’
The Open University received both internal and external complaints about the claimant’s social media posts”
Another case reported in May showed there is little defence for somebody using social media to air racist opinions and slurs. Mr Cave, who worked for the Open University, attempted to claim unfair dismissal on the grounds he had the right as an ‘English nationalist’ to voice his racist views. The tribunal ruled that English nationalism was not a ‘philosophical belief’.
Cave had brought a belief discrimination claim against his employer after he was dismissed from his acting project co-ordinator role in July 2020, following complaints about racist remarks he had made on Twitter and YouTube.
One tweet in reply to Star Wars actor John Boyega said: “Why does a person who speaks and acts like a foreigner expect to be treated the same as an Englishman in England? The entitlement of these people…”
Cave had used an alias on social media and some of the content had been deleted by the time he was spoken to by the Open University. There was no evidence that Cave had discussed these beliefs at work, but the Open University received both internal and external complaints about his social media posts.
Asked about his beliefs, Cave told the employment tribunal sitting in Cambridge that he described himself as an “English nationalist” and believed that mass immigration has been “destructive and unhealthy”.
‘Let’s do it’ song amounted to sexual harassment
The claimant also referred to Wilson faking an orgasm”
In July, Personnel Today reported an unusual employment tribunal case in which it was decided that singing the well-known refrain of comedian Victoria Wood’s Ballad of Barry and Freda, “Let’s do it”, amounted to sexual harassment. In October 2021, Mr Nunns began his role as head chef at the Windermere Manor Hotel, which is owned by SBH Windermere and managed by Starboard Hotels.
Nunns alleged that Mr Wilson, the Lake District hotel’s general manager and the second respondent in the claim, made inappropriate comments and sexual references to food. He gave an example of when the claimant held a cucumber and Wilson had made a suggestive look and said: “Do you need some time alone dear?”
The claimant also referred to Wilson faking an orgasm when eating food he had prepared, followed by a hug, a kiss on the forehead, and what Nunns described as “mildly dramatised dry humping”. He also stated that in January 2022, Wilson sang The Ballad of Barry and Freda – Wood’s comic song about a sexually frustrated wife and her intimacy-fearing husband – in front of him. During the song, Wilson attempted eye contact with Nunns and made gestures.
Employee who advertised sex work online unfairly dismissed
His manager confronted him over the site, claiming it could damage the bank’s reputation”
In August, we learned how a former NatWest employee who advertised sex work online won a case for unfair dismissal after flaws were revealed in the disciplinary process. The claimant ran a website called Agile Love, linked to a separate site featuring explicit pictures of himself and selling £25 sensual massages while still working for the bank, where he was employed as an analyst. His manager confronted him over the site, claiming it could damage the bank’s reputation.
In response, the claimant accused his boss of cyberstalking. He was eventually dismissed after repeated fall-outs with managers over his continued work with the site, alongside concerns about his behaviour at work. An occupational health report had shown that the claimant had been diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, which could lead to him showing extremes of mood. He was however deemed fit for work with some adjustments made to avoid serious triggers of the condition.
‘Grow up’ comment was not age discrimination
She was seen quarrelling with a younger waitress about moving a glass”
In the autumn we heard that being told to behave in a more grown-up manner at work was not discriminatory in a case that dismissed an age and race discrimination claim made against London’s Hippodrome Casino. Waitress Ms Mariotti claimed she was discriminated against when a bar supervisor commented that she “should not expect youngsters to do the work” and to behave in a more grown-up way when she was seen quarrelling with a younger waitress about moving a glass.
The judge in this unusual employment tribunal case found that this comment could not be seen as unfavourable treatment due to her age, and simply indicated the supervisor felt she was behaving in an immature way. “It is a commonplace to condemn as ‘childish’, quarrelsome and impulsive behaviour which is characteristic of children, but which adults are expected to have overcome, and to refer to responsible actions and attitudes as ‘grown-up’,” said Employment Judge Goodman.
Train driver unfairly dismissed after tarantula prank
As a result of the tarantula prank, Driver A called Richardson a ‘f***ing tw*t’”
In possibly the most bizarre tribunal case of the year so far, this week we reported that a train driver had won his unfair and wrongful dismissal case after he was sacked for gross misconduct for workplace pranks involving the shed skins of a tarantula and a snake.
Mr Richardson had been working for West Midlands Trains since 2018. In mid-2022, Richardson and a female colleague, described as Driver A, had a conversation in the drivers’ mess in which she indicated a squeamishness to insects and spiders. After this, Richardson played a prank on Driver A, where he placed a tarantula’s exoskeleton – the skin shed by the spider – in her pigeonhole.
As a result Driver A called Richardson a “f***ing tw*t”. He said he could repeat the prank with the shed skin of a snake. The following month, Richardson left a snakeskin in Driver A’s pigeonhole. Again distressed, she reported the event orally to her line manager and then formally by email.
The tribunal heard that Richardson acknowledged he had not understood Driver A’s genuine upset. A disciplinary hearing was held under the respondent’s bullying and harassment policy, resulting in dismissal for gross misconduct.
Upholding Richardson’s claim of unfair dismissal, employment Judge Matthew Hunt found it was accepted that Richardson had intended to perform pranks, no matter how poorly judged they proved. “I simply wish to demonstrate that a prank is a common and well-understood phenomenon,” the judge said.
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