From accidental exhibitionists to employer espionage, we revisit the cases that captured readers’ attention this year
23 December 2025
The employment tribunal system has become increasingly stretched this year because of a surge in workers exercising their rights and a decline in judicial resources.
As of September, there were more than half a million open tribunal claims, with the backlog expected to continue growing in 2026.
Each tribunal offers HR professionals lessons in how to avoid litigation and handle workplace conflicts. These are the 10 tribunals that caught readers’ attention this year.
The biggest HR stories of 2025
Employment law: what to expect in 2026
2026 labour market trends: hiring slowdown and AI disruption
A senior executive secured more than 1.2m in damages after her employer reassigned her role while she was on sick leave for breast cancer treatment.
The east London tribunal heard that Andrea Wainwright, head of installations at Cennox, felt “traumatised and broken” after discovering on LinkedIn that a colleague had taken her position just three months into her absence from the banking services firm.
Upon her recovery, Wainwright filed a formal grievance regarding her treatment before ultimately choosing to resign. Five years on, she prevailed in her case for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.
Read the full case here
Four pharmacies in Hudson County agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle claims that they billed federal healthcare programs for medications they never filled, federal prosecutors said. The ph...