A Glasgow charity worker has been awarded over £4,000 from her former employer for unfair dismissal and breach of contract.
Turning Point Scotland was taken to an employment tribunal by the woman after she was forced to resign from her post in 2018 after five years of service.
The lead practitioner in criminal justice services claimed to have suffered emotional distress over her treatment by the charity after they determined that her breast reduction surgery, as recommended by an NHS surgeon, was cosmetic and threatened not to pay her while she was recovering.
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The charity questioned her about the legitimacy of her surgery and told her to take annual leave for the procedure, despite her insistence it was on medical grounds. She was also told that would have to attend an appointment with occupational health which was later deemed "unnecessary" and cancelled.
Just weeks after returning to work following the surgery, she was told that funding for her position had 'ceased' and that she was at risk of redundancy. Under Turning Point's Redundancy Policy, they were required to offer her a suitable alternative role elsewhere in the charity.
The woman was moved onto another project despite the funding not fully being in place and it not yet being operational.
After a four-week trial period, the employee decided that she didn't have enough information on the role to base her decision on whether to accept the job as suitable alternative employment. Two other roles offered to her were determined to be 'both unsuitable and unsustainable' prompting her to take redundancy.
Turning Point responded by claiming that she was not eligible for redundancy as another suitable role had been found. She was instead issued with a P45.
After informing bosses that she had not resigned and was instead opting for redundancy, she was forced to eventually hand in her resignation with immediate effect to allow her to get another job.
An employment tribunal heard that she had the former Turning Point employee raised claims of unfair dismissal, breach of contract, redundancy payment, and alleged discrimination on the grounds of the protective characteristics of disability and sex.
Employment Judge McManus ruled the charity had breached the woman's contract, and forced her to resign. It outlined that "the respondent acted in fundamental breach of the term of trust and confidence and the claimant was entitled to resign."
It was decided that she was entitled to an unfair dismissal award and a compensatory award. It was decided that a sum of £2,819 for unfair dismissal and £1,426 in respect of her unpaid notice entitlement.
Claims of direct discrimination and harassment were dismissed.
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