Was 2024 a great year for the UK economy? No. Do UK businesses at least now have greater clarity regarding the details of the upcoming changes in employment law? Also no.

Employment Law Wrapped 2024 wouldn’t be complete without kicking off with everyone’s favourite bill – Bill Murray aside. The Labour government promised that the Employment Rights Bill would be the greatest shake up in employment law in a generation. But like a snow globe in the back of bin lorry driven through cobbled streets, we doubt the shake up will lead to a settled picture any time soon. Even our own Employment Lawyers Association said that the bill would confuse even “senior and experienced lawyers.” It’s always nice to be name checked by your industry body.

Someone who will not be glad about being name checked is the “serial litigator” who was exposed for using ChatGPT to generate claims against employers he unsuccessfully applied to. The claimant used AI to apply to over 4,600 jobs and if the company did not comply with his request for job criteria before his interview, he would bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal for disability discrimination. Although not always successful, it is said that he won £35,000 in settlements over the past five years. At least I think that’s what happened, I have been hallucinating about employment law cases long before it was trendy and cool.

Absolutely not considered trendy and cool was the housing worker at Birmingham City Council who was found to have discriminated against his younger colleague by passing gas on him whilst he was eating his lunch. Once the Employment Tribunal got wind of the case, they knew something didn’t smell right and found there was a campaign of harassment on the basis of age. It was another bad day in the dock for Birmingham City Council who still owe up to £760m in relation to an equal pay claim.

Also not having a good day, or specifically, a good morning, was the recruitment manager who successfully brought an unfair dismissal claim based on her manager not greeting her at the start of the day. If that is the bar for rude and unreasonable behaviour, it makes it even more confusing that separately, a part-time administrator was found to have been unfairly dismissed for calling a client a [name we would never call our lovely clients]. The poor lady made the classic mistake of replying to the customer rather than forwarding it to her colleague – nightmare fuel for any client-facing professional. In that case the Employment Tribunal found the procedure followed was flawed, and hence found the dismissal unfair.

This is a fairly common pattern. In fact, a fair dismissal rendered unfair by a flawed process. For example, a care assistant in Edinburgh won her unfair dismissal claim despite failing to tell her employer she had been charged with a crime… murder. In fairness, who hasn’t had a little homicide charge slip the mind now and again?

Not falling into that trap was a national firm, described by the Employment Tribunal as following a “textbook” investigation in finding a facilitates supervisor engaged in “excessive internet browsing at work.” The investigation found the employee undertook hundreds of personal searches and, during the investigation, used abusive language towards a colleague (again, using the same [redacted] insult, which I think has earned its right as the employment law word of the year at this point).

At least the employee was doing something on their computer, unlike the employees of one company who were dismissed for being mouse jigglers (Theroux EJ finding his reasoning doesn’t jiggle jiggle, it holds…), indicating that the rise in working from home has meant inventive employees are finding more ingenious ways to fake productivity. Unfortunately for one bar owner, the attempt by their staff to (presumably) boost productivity by using cocaine whilst on shift ended badly after it found the bar manager was unfairly sacked for blowing the whistle on the staff room’s resembling a snow globe. Oddly, this isn’t the only drug-related case that caught our attention; in Ireland, a business was ordered to pay a former IT worker almost €80,000 for unfair dismissal despite the company being wound up earlier in the year due to the CEO being arrested for importing boatloads of crystal meth into the country.

For a German police officer, it wasn’t taking drugs from a crime scene which spelled his downfall, but cheese. A court found he was fairly dismissed for stealing over 180kg of cheese from a crime scene. The whole case raises more questions than answers, such as why was there 180kg of cheese at a crime scene – was a notorious Swiss crime gang planning on drowning their rivals in a pot of fondu?

Finally, finishing on a (vaguely) festive note is the viral story from February in which an Irish woman lost her €760,000 disability claim after being photographed winning a Christmas tree tossing competition. Despite claiming she may never work again due to her injuries following an accident, a very diligent elf on the shelf for the insurance company found a photograph of her tossing a large Christmas tree in a local newspaper. Not only could she toss the spruce, but did it with such zeal that she can be seen proudly holding the winner’s certificate. The reporting isn’t clear on whether the tree tossing prize money was more or less than her €760,000 claim, but we suspect she may be in net loss territory following that endeavour.

There you have it, a small curation of the odd cases which have kept us entertained throughout the year. From ChatGPT being used to bring thousands of claims, to the local paper catching you out after a tree tossing competition. This odd but amazing little corner of law never ceases to be the gift that stops giving.

From all of us here at GQ Littler, wishing you very happy holidays.