A barber who fired a staff member who regularly phoned in sick on Mondays for four years has been ordered to pay her £3,000. Christian Donnelly, 39, fired Celine Thorley, 25, from Acute Barbers after she developed a 'pattern' of not turning up for work after weekends.
A tribunal heard that the Cardiff business owner had warned Ms Thorley "don't let me down on Monday" as she finished her final shift before a weekend house party back in 2021. She then texted him on the Monday saying she could not get out of bed because her stomach was "killing" her.
Wales Online reports that Mr Donnelly replied that he was sacking her after "four years of phoning in sick on Mondays because you’d had a good weekend". At tribunal, an employment judge ordered the 39-year-old to pay Ms Thorley a total of £3,453 after ruling she was genuinely ill with a heavy period.
Following the ruling, the businessman says he stands by the decision because there was a "pattern" of the 25-year-old calling in sick on Mondays. He accepted he should have gone through the correct process including written warnings but felt the amount of compensation was a "farce".
Mr Donnelly said: "I don't know how I'm going to come up with that."
Ms Thorley started working at the shop in 2018 with annual pay of about £16,000. Mr Donnelly said they got on "pretty well" and described her as a "damn decent barber" who was friendly with customers.
However, he told the tribunal that in her first year she had more time off than her colleagues combined and that the sick days almost always followed weekends. Mr Donnelly claimed that she had 17 days of Monday/Tuesday absences as well as 10 days off recovering from a burn.
The tribunal heard Ms Thorley hosted a Halloween house party on the last weekend of October 2021. Mr Donnelly said his parting words to her before the weekend were: “Don’t let me down on Monday.”
But on the Monday morning Ms Thorley texted: "Hey Chris I know you're going to be mad at me but I can’t make it to work sorry I really didn’t think I was going to be this bad I’m not well at all I was a mess yesterday and I’ve woke up this morning and was sick straight away. I really thought I was going to be okay today... my stomach is killing me and I’m all shaky... I really can’t get out of bed Chris. I’m soo sorry!"
The barber said he was "not having this" and would be letting her go. She protested but he replied: "After four years of phoning in sick on Mondays because you’d had a good weekend, I can do what I like, trust me... I’ve kept that shop open just to keep you in a wage... Don’t come in and you’re gone."
Ms Thorley warned she would take him to a tribunal, to which he responded: "You’ve had all your warnings. Crack on with all that legal s***."
The tribunal heard that Ms Thorley’s mother-in-law took the day off work to look after her because she was in "severe pain" on the day she was fired. And Ms Thorley said the number of absences was "not as bad" as Mr Donnelly suggested.
She could not say how often she needed time off for period issues but suspected it may have been "every month or every other month" The 25-year-old also claimed she was suffering from endometriosis, a condition which can cause crippling pelvic pain.
She had never received a formal diagnosis but said she was on a waiting list to be seen by a gynaecologist. The tribunal heard there was no referral letter in her medical records.
Judge Roseanne Russell found that Ms Thorley had a "physical impairment" from menorrhagia (heavy periods). Upholding a claim of unfair dismissal, she said Mr Donnelly had not given formal warnings.
The judge said: "A fair process had been ignored altogether. The failure was not inadvertent but deliberate.
"This was demonstrated by Christian Donnelly telling the claimant to ‘crack on with all that legal s***’."
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