A police officer won her case for sex discrimination in 2007 but there was a further 2 year delay before the remedies hearing, where damages are decided, was scheduled.
The police officer made an Employment Tribunal claim for sex discrimination after being subjected to repeated unwanted comments, including comments such as “Come and sit at the front. I promise not to look at your chest,” during a training session, pictures of topless women being left lying around, officers watching x-rated TV channels in the gym and at the TV room in the station, and a working environment that had an “attitude to women which was disrespectful”. She was the only female firearms officer in a team of 18 officers employed at an airport. The police officer had been off work with stress for two years at the time the Employment Tribunal upheld her claim of sex discrimination. She had only taken one day of sickness absence in the previous four years. The police force was criticised for its lack of support for her and failure to apologise.
The police officer is reported as commenting, “I survived backpacking around India at the age of 19 where I was even kidnapped and held against my will for a few days in Bombay. Nothing, however, prepared me for the people at Gatwick. I felt sick every time I went to work and cried every time I went home.”
However the Employment Tribunal further criticised the police force for its actions in between the two hearings. After the initial hearing which upheld the police officer’s complaints, the police force told the officer she would have to leave as it was unlikely she would be able to return to work. The police force did not offer an apology because the police officer did not ask for one. She was refused a request to retire on grounds of ill health on the grounds of a medical opinion that she might have been able to return after counselling. A year later, the police force changed its position and allowed her to apply for ill health retirement.
Therefore at the delayed remedies hearing, the Employment Tribunal awarded a substantial sum for loss of earnings while she had been off sick and injury to feelings which totalled £273,000. In addition a further award was made for loss of pension, which may bring her total award to £573,000. This last £300,000, however, will not be awarded if she succeeds in the ill health retirement application.
The Employment Tribunal commented that the police force’s “attendance management and ill health retirement went beyond mere negligence. It seems to us that she was indeed treated in a ‘high-handed, insulting, malicious or oppressive’ way.”
If you have been discriminated against at work, please call either Ashley Hunt, Vaishali Thakerar or Carrie-Ann Randall on 0116 212 1000 now or complete one of the on-line forms.
