Legal

J Murphy & Sons has agreed a compensation settlement with four sacked workers following a lengthy dispute. The employees – fitters and welders working on a refurbishment project at Ireland’s giant Rusal Aughinish Alumina refinery – were dismissed in 2022 after a meeting at the plant to discuss the non-payment…

A demolition contractor has been fined £60,000 after a labourer was hit by masonry in an incident that left him “lucky to be alive”. MAC Demolition, the firm contracted to carry out the works, was fined over the incident, which took place in Kilburn, north-west London, last year. The west-London…

A building owner found guilty of missing a deadline to remove unsafe cladding has been ordered to pay a total of £60,000. Chaplair Limited was successfully prosecuted on 18 October by Newham Council over delays in remediating a building in East London. On Tuesday (31 October) the company was handed…

Two demolition contractors fined £22m in the sector’s cover-bidding scandal are set for an April tribunal showdown with competition regulators. In March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined Keltbray, Squibb Group and eight other firms, after finding they had colluded on prices through illegal cartel agreements when submitting bids in…

A facade specialist has been fined £240,000 after leaving combustible cladding that it was removing from a building on residents’ balconies. According to a statement from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the incident took place at the eight-storey The Circle apartment block in central Liverpool, where Green Facades was…

Homes England has lost an equal pay claim brought by a senior employee who was paid £14,000 less than a male colleague. Quantity surveyor (QS) Jennifer Owen joined the agency in November 2020 on a salary of £51,258 per year, the minimum in her pay band. She was told she…

The government will not set a time limit on when accountable persons must share golden-thread information with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and others – despite responses to a consultation calling for a precise timeframe. In a July 2022 consultation, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) said…

The owner of a nine-storey building in east London has been successfully prosecuted for missing a deadline to remediate unsafe cladding, despite blaming contractual delays with Willmott Dixon. Newham Council brought the charges against Chaplair Limited for failing to respond to an improvement notice on time. The authority said it…

A £2bn Lendlease scheme in North London can go ahead after a High Court judge threw out objections from Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. The mixed-use redevelopment scheme, called High Road West, is close to the club’s stadium. It involves the construction of a new neighbourhood that will include six tall…

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission (EC) have launched coordinated investigations into suspected anticompetitive practices in the supply of chemicals to the construction industry. The investigations relate to chemical admixtures and additives for concrete, mortar and cement. Two firms have so far confirmed they are…