Claims against the NHS: employment tribunal decisions

In the wake of two employment tribunal decisions in which former NHS employees were awarded compensation of nearly £4.5 million and £1 million, we report five cases addressing various employment disputes that arose in the NHS.

  • Claims against the NHS: employment tribunal decisions The cases brought against the NHS cover: unfair dismissal for breach of patient confidentiality and refusal to take an emergency call; a reasonable adjustment for a diabetic employee; letters about a doctor's fitness to attend court; and relocation resulting in a transferred employee's redundancy.

Also

Employment tribunal cases against the NHS: what are the most common claims faced by the NHS? A sample of 100 employment tribunal rulings gathered by HR & Compliance Centre suggests that, with the exception of unfair dismissal, NHS trusts are most likely to face race and disability discrimination claims.

In the employment tribunals The HR & Compliance Centre case reports section provides details of more employment tribunal claims against the NHS, including:

  • Michalak v Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust ET/1810815/08 This employment tribunal has awarded a former NHS doctor one of the largest ever discrimination payouts after she was subjected to a sustained campaign of sex and race discrimination. The tribunal found the NHS trust and three senior managers, one of whom was the HR director, jointly and severally liable for compensation.
  • Browne v Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust ET/2407264/07; ET/2405865/08; and ET/2408501/08 In this case, the employment tribunal awarded an NHS worker, who was dismissed from his senior position in the NHS, close to £1 million for race discrimination, despite the tribunal's refusal to increase the award for future loss of earnings on the basis of the worker's argument that he might have been promoted before he retired.
  • McGraw v London Ambulance Service NHS Trust ET/3301865/11 This case is a useful early example of how employment tribunals are approaching the new concept of "discrimination arising from disability" under the Equality Act 2010. The claimant fell at the first hurdle by failing to demonstrate a link between his disability and his treatment by the employer.