Employment Tribunal Backlog Surpasses Half a Million: What It Means

January 27, 2026January 26, 2026 by Tom Street

Stacks of employment tribunal case files piling up, symbolizing record 515,000 backlog

🔄 Updated for 2025/26 • Last reviewed: 26 January 2026 | By Tom Street Key Takeaways 515,000 people are waiting for employment tribunal hearings, with open cases up 33% year-on-year Tribunals received 26,000 new claims but only disposed of 10,000 cases in Q2 2025 Average wait time is now 12-18 months, and the Employment Rights Act 2025 will add millions more potential claimants At Breaking Point The employment tribunal system …

For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers: What the Supreme Court Ruling Means for Employment Law

January 21, 2026January 21, 2026 by Tom Street

Supreme Court building with scales of justice representing the For Women Scotland ruling

✓ Legal accuracy verified: 20 January 2026 Reviewed by Tom Street, Solicitor (SRA No. 566718) 20 January 2026 | By Tom Street On 16 April 2025, the UK Supreme Court delivered its unanimous judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16. The For Women Scotland ruling, clarified that “sex”, “man” and “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex, not certificated sex through …

Sandie Peggie Legal Team to Appeal All Three Versions of Tribunal Ruling

January 22, 2026January 20, 2026 by Tom Street

Sandie Peggie Appeal | NHS hospital corridor representing changing room disputes in Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife case

20 January 2026 | By Tom Street The legal team representing Scottish nurse Sandie Peggie has confirmed they will appeal the employment tribunal ruling in her case against NHS Fife, as well as two subsequent corrected versions of that judgment. This Sandie Peggie appeal is set to challenge the initial decisions made in her case. Peggie was suspended from her job in the A&E department at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy …

Derbyshire Officer’s Sexual Harassment Led to Gross Misconduct Finding

January 24, 2026January 20, 2026 by Tom Street

Close-up of police uniform shoulder detail suggesting professional context

20 January 2026 | By Tom Street A Derbyshire police officer has been found guilty of gross misconduct after slapping a female colleague’s bottom, poking another colleague’s buttock, and sending sexually explicit messages to staff. PC Alexander Kimber resigned before the misconduct hearing took place in December 2025. The panel concluded he would have been dismissed had he still been serving, and his behaviour represented “discriminatory and/or harassing behaviour on …

TikTok Moderators Launch Legal Action Over Alleged Union-Busting

January 17, 2026January 17, 2026 by Tom Street

Content moderator at workstation with multiple screens

17 January 2026 • By Tom Street Around 400 TikTok content moderators in London have been sacked, and three of them are now taking the social media giant to an employment tribunal. Their claim? That TikTok fired them specifically to stop them forming a union. The timing is striking. TikTok announced the redundancies on 22 August 2025, just seven days before workers were due to vote on union recognition. The …

Darlington Nurses Win Harassment Claim Over NHS Changing Room Policy

January 16, 2026January 16, 2026 by Tom Street

NHS hospital corridor with staff changing room facilities

16 January 2026 • By Tom Street An employment tribunal has found that eight nurses were unlawfully harassed by their NHS employer over its policy on single-sex changing facilities. The 134-page ruling, delivered after a 16-day hearing with 24 witnesses and some 4,500 pages of evidence, is one of the first significant workplace decisions since the Supreme Court confirmed that “sex” under the Equality Act 2010 means biological sex. What …

Thompson v Scancrown Ltd: £185,000 Award for Refusing Flexible Working Request

January 16, 2026January 16, 2026 by Tom Street

🔄 Updated for 2025/26 • Last reviewed: 16 January 2026 Written and reviewed by: Tom Street, Solicitor Principal, Tom Street & Co. Solicitors (SRA No. 566718) Last updated: 16 January 2026 ⏱️ 12 minute read Quick Summary In Thompson v Scancrown Ltd, an employment tribunal awarded nearly £185,000 to a sales manager whose employer refused her request to finish work at 5pm instead of 6pm after returning from maternity leave. …

Suffolk Police Gender Discrimination: 5 Lessons from Landmark Tribunal Case

January 17, 2026January 15, 2026 by Tom Street

Silhouetted figures walking through the corridor of a modern police station building

15 January 2026 – By Tom Street An employment tribunal has found that Suffolk Police unlawfully discriminated against two male officers when it removed them from their team and replaced them with women. The force admitted knowing its actions were discriminatory but proceeded anyway. This case is a stark reminder of a principle that should be obvious but apparently isn’t: discrimination laws protect everyone, regardless of gender. What happened Two …

LNER Age Discrimination Case: Why the Train Drivers Lost

January 8, 2026January 8, 2026 by Tom Street

Train driver in cab -age discrimination in railway employment

8 January 2026 | Tom Street, Solicitor Sometimes the law reaches a result that feels deeply unfair, even when it’s technically correct. A recent employment tribunal decision involving LNER and four long-serving train drivers is one of those cases. The four drivers, each with more than 40 years’ service, were denied ill-health severance payments because they were over 65 when their employment ended. One described feeling “cancelled as a person” …

Community Resolution Orders and DBS Checks: What You Need to Know

January 12, 2026January 8, 2026 by Tom Street

Tom Street, 8 January 2026 A misconduct hearing this week found that a Leicestershire police officer would have been sacked for issuing a community resolution order to a woman without ever speaking to her. The details sound almost absurd: Louise Gather went to Bradgate Park looking for rare mushrooms, didn’t pick any, and ended up with a police record that could have cost her her job. But beneath the headlines …