Newsletter July 2023

Welcome, and thank you for joining us for our July newsletter. The unfortunate souls that missed out on our last newsletter can achieve enlightenment here. Last month we looked at a new addition to the PJH Law team, discrimination in the military, and sexual harassment in Westminster. This week we’ll be looking at.. another new hire! Along with some serious allegations at one of the worlds biggest fast food outlets.

PJH Law News – New Solicitor

Please join us in welcoming Kyle Connor to PJH Law LLP. Allow me to introduce myself!

“I am a newly qualified solicitor, being freshly added to the roll on 16 July. While my background has been a lot of property work and private client, I have had a long standing passion for Employment Law, having taken it as an elective during my Postgraduate time at the University of Sheffield.

Everyone has been fantastic in welcoming me into the firm and I look forward to shamelessly sponging from their experience for the foreseeable future!”

If you would like to know a bit more about us, you can find our team page here.

Hotlines and Hot Water at McDonalds

Over 100 members of staff, past and present, have come forward alleging sexual abuse, harassment, racism and bullying against managers in the ubiquitous food giant this month.

Victims as young as 16 have come forward with shocking stories of the kind of conduct they have had to deal with. The victim describes her story: ‘Every shift I worked, there would be at least a comment being made, or I’d be brushed, a hand brushed across me, or it would be a more severe thing, like having my bum grabbed, hips grabbed’. Other members of staff complained of sexual groping, unsolicited sexual images and other alarming conduct.

Even on the unsolicited side, staff members in Northern Ireland describe situations where sexual relations between colleagues lead to an outbreak of gonorrhea.

Other complaints describe racist comments and jokes, with one Pakistani member of staff being referred to as a terrorist.

A statement made by Sarah Woolley, general secretary of The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, in the wake of over 1,000 complaints being made in 2019, said ‘this is not a few bad apples’. Which seems to have been borne out over the following years.

A hotline, along with a confidential email address mcdonalds@equalityhumanrights.com, has been established to help support the victims of the abuse described above.

Should you or someone you know have experienced any of the issues listed here, please contact one of our team who will be able to assist you.

Twitter Twoddle

Allow me to neatly jump you over to the recent Twitter fiasco of changing the name of the site to ‘X’ (a copyright owned by Microsoft!) and onto their issues with employees the company has encountered.

Having dismissed a large chunk of its workforce over the previous months during the acquisition process, Twitter is now unhappy about where their employees have ended up. As many of you will know already, Threads, an app launched as a direct competitor by Meta (the Facebook people) has recently launched to global success. Having reached over 30 millions users in the first 16 hours, the success has been tarred slightly with threats of legal action.

Citing the intellectual property rights of the company, Twitter has sent Meta a cease and desist letter. While it is true that some post termination restrictive covenants are perfectly legitimate, it may not be clear what will happen should Meta refuse. I’ve got my £5 on Zuckerberg in the upcoming cage match!

Whilst we can’t speak of Employment rights (or the lack of) in the United States, attempting to enforce post termination restrictive covenants on employees after you have dismissed them wrongfully in the UK goes against established precedent. Large companies that hire international workers need to be aware of the framework under which their employees fall.

If you are having issues understanding Restrictive Covenants please contact a member of our team who will be able to assist you.

£100,000 Award for Gender Critical Tax Planner

This month saw an award of over £100k for an unfair dismissal and discrimination case from the Employment Tribunal.

Maya Forstater, former visiting fellow for the Centre for Global Development, was awarded the sum following a tribunal judgment in her favour. The issue arose following several social media posts wherein Maya stated her gender critical beliefs. After being alerted to the posts, her employer decided not to renew her contract.

The tribunal found that she had been discriminated against on three grounds, 1. not offering her another employment contract, 2. refusing to renew her fellowship, and 3. removing her name and details from their website.

Thanking JK Rowling for her support, Maya stated ‘I, and many other people with gender critical beliefs, have been the victims, not the perpetrators, of discrimination fuelled by bigotry’.

Lighter Side of the News

To end our newsletter I bring you tales of a crime most foul. Selling counterfeit goods is taken very seriously by authorities, as it can lead to members of the public with no food or hygiene knowledge producing hazardous materials sold under the guide of a legitimate product.

This is not one of those times. Two men were arrested for selling counterfeit jars of organic cranberry sauce.

In trying to pass the fakes off as real, the two went so far as to produce fake invoices for another company, along with producing their own packaging stating that the sauce was organic when, in fact, it was not.

You can sleep safely now knowing that both men were given community orders and that Tesco’s intellectual property remains sound.

Reminds me of another two cases of counterfeit. One party was selling fake batteries and the other fake fireworks. After extensive litigation the first party was charged and the second was let off!

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